Radnor Twp. resident catches mailman throwing deliveries in the trash

You trust them to deliver your bills, coupons, gifts and online orders.

They're the men and women that serve your neighborhood six days a week.

But what happens when your local mailman decides there's too much mail to deliver, and instead of placing it in your mailbox, it gets thrown in the trash?

Brian McLaughlin, a resident of Radnor Township, said that's exactly what he witnessed his neighborhood mailman doing Labor Day Weekend.

McLaughlin said he was driving home last Friday evening around 5:45 p.m. when he spotted the mailman parked next to a dumpster.

"He was just grabbing handfuls of mail and throwing them out the window into the dumpster, by piles at a time," said McLaughlin.

McLaughlin said he decided to capture the mailman in action.

"I came around and parked, and came back and got a picture. When he pulled off, I took a picture of the trash," said McLaughlin. "There was legit actual mail with people's names and addresses on it from different banks and stores," said McLaughlin.

McLaughlin shared the photo on Twitter, tagging Action News and the U.S. Postal Service. He also posted the pictures on Main Line Alerts.

McLaughlin said the U.S. Postal Service never responded to his tweet, but the Inspector General did respond to Action News, in a statement saying they interviewed the mailman, and "the employee took responsibility for his actions, and is no longer employed by the Postal Service."

McLaughlin said his guess is the mailman wanted to cut his shift short and get an early start on the holiday weekend, but his deliveries were in the way.

"From the amount of stuff in there, I assume it takes him a good amount of time to do it," said McLaughlin.

McLaughlin said he now questions how many times this has happened in the past.

"We had a neighbor tell us there was a bank letter in there, there was a catalog somebody ordered in there," said McLaughlin. "We've had stuff not show up in the past from PNC bank, from other institutions."

Included the trashed deliveries were coupons many families rely on to save money.

"I'm sure he makes a good salary working for the government and just didn't feel like doing his job, and everybody here didn't get coupons or whatever to save money," said McLaughlin.

The postal service said the majority of their 500,000 employees nationwide are dedicated.

In this case, however, one employee betrayed the public's trust, not only throwing away mail, but his career.