DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — A homeowner says a runaway mail truck left his home with a huge hole in it. Now he says he’s trying to figure out who will pay for the damages.
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John Grubbs told Channel 2’s Tom Jones it all started when the mailman needed to take a break and went into a porta-potty in his neighborhood near Wesley Chapel in DeKalb County on May 12. He says that’s when the postal carrier’s mail truck began moving.
“Roll down the hill. Took the mailbox out,” he said. “Went straight through here and went straight into the house,” he said, pointing out the path the truck took.
Grubbs said it caused massive damage to his home.
“My sister said it sounded like a bomb going off,” Grubbs told Jones.
“And then she came out and saw the mail truck in the house, and then the mail guy just came out of the porta-potty walking down the hill,” Grubbs explained.
He says the truck knocked a huge hole in the brick wall.
Jones asked if there was any structural damage.
“Structural? I mean, look,” he said, shaking the unstable wall as it moved.
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Grubbs says the post office says the truck malfunctioned. He says the postal service asked him to fill out a claim form, but he says he has to pay for the damage and hopes to get reimbursed.
He estimates the damage is more than $30,000. He says a quote from his insurance company is nowhere near that amount.
Grubbs says he is fortunate his sister wasn’t sitting in the room where the mail truck hit.
“Luckily, she was upstairs,” Grubbs said.
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Jones reached out to the U.S. Post Office for a comment about this incident.
A spokesperson sent the following statement:
The U.S. Postal Service delivers to over 170 million addresses, six days a week and we take great care to protect both postal property and customers’ personal property. Unfortunately, rare instances of property damage do occur. The Postal Service is governed by specific guidelines regarding tort claims filed by customers. In this case, local postal management is working directly with the customer and will continue to do so to ensure repairs are made within existing guidelines and regulations, in order to reach a fair and equitable resolution. We apologize for any inconvenience this incident may have caused.
Click here if you would like to help Grubbs and his family repair what he says is his childhood home.
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