Hampton neighborhood impacted after dog chases mail carrier

A southwest Hampton neighborhood has lost to-the-door delivery of their mail following a recent dog incident and there seems to be few viable options left to resolve the situation.

On Wednesday, May 19, Hampton Police received a report of loose dogs chasing down United States Postal Service carrier Lessie Love. Two dogs, belonging to Jenny Turner of SW Hampton, were involved. Of those dogs, one had previously bitten that same carrier last year.

According to written accounts from both Love and Turner, Love had been delivering mail across the street from Turner's residence when Turner let her dogs outside. Jay, the Corgi mix that had previously bitten Love, caught sight of her and got free from Turner's grip. Mia, a pit bull, joined in the pursuit.

The two dogs crossed the street and went after Love. The resulting encounter caused Love to trip over some landscaping while defending herself.

"I was able to remove my hip satchel and use my satchel as a barrier and fought off them both," said Love in her statement.

Turner and her son were able to retrieve the dogs, with Turner's son taking the dogs back inside the house while Turner helped Love recover mail that had scattered during the encounter. Outside of the fall, Love was uninjured but left scared and shaken.

Following the incident, the post office immediately suspended mail delivery to Turner and the surrounding area until the matter could be resolved.

The incident was discussed during the May 27 Hampton City Council meeting, where the council looked over the written accounts from Love, Turner, her son, and a neighboring witness. Police Chief Bob Schaefer asked the council to determine whether or not Jay the Corgi mix should be deemed vicious. Mia, the pit bull, was not considered as it was the dog's first incident and it appeared was just following Jay's lead.

Turner and her sons were present at the meeting to request that their dog be given another chance. No representative from USPS was present.

Having heard from the owners, the council moved to declare the dog as non-vicious under the condition that Turner install an invisible fence to keep it from getting loose again.

The motion was made by council member Berry Lamos and seconded by Dick Lukensmeyer with Jim Davies and Bill Hodge voting for while Patrick Palmer and Steve Birdsall voted against.

However, that is not where the issue ended.

In response to the council's decision, the post office enacted a new policy for Turner's home and the surrounding area, ending to-the-door delivery to 22 residences in the neighboring blocks. Since then, the adjusting of routes has brought the number of impacted residences to 20. Barring a change in the situation, these homes will now have to find an alternative to door delivery.

This means either installing a curbside mailbox, getting a P.O. Box, or applying for a hardship waiver.

The impact this has had on the community resulted in a follow-up with the city council during their June 10 meeting, where Postmaster Heather Taylor attended along with her manager, Stephanie Brandt, and USPS Consumer and Industry Contact Manager Dawn Cook via Zoom.

Taylor, who made the initial call to the police following the incident, recounted her recollection of events and the effect it had on the carrier.

"It took me 40 minutes to calm this carrier down," said Taylor.

Taylor presented the council with the post office's stance on the situation, explaining that they felt the dog continues to pose a risk to carriers and that it being allowed to stay in the has city forced the post office to take these measures to protect their workers.

"We were assured that the dog that attacked our carrier twice was no longer going to be an issue," said Brandt. "Until those dogs are gone, we are going to have to move delivery to curb delivery on the street."

The fast rollout of the new policy was not without its own issues. While the policy was enacted immediately following the May city council meeting, the impacted residents were not notified until a letter went out on June 8. This caused disruption in the neighborhood from residents not getting needed packages due to not knowing their delivery routine had been changed.

"I do apologize for that," said Taylor.

Council member Lukensmeyer also expressed his disappointment that a representative from the Post Office wasn't present at the previous meeting to both share their side of the story and inform the council of what the consequences would be for declaring the dog non-vicious.

Taylor responded that the postal worker in question was out-of-town during that meeting and that she was only informed of the meeting a few hours ahead of time and had already scheduled a doctor's appointment.

USPS has made it clear that they will be happy to reverse their change in policy once they are satisfied that their carrier in the neighborhood will be able to safely deliver mail to the door. Taylor does not consider an invisible fence to be sufficient, but would accept a physical fence were Turner to install one. Until then, for their safety, delivery in the area around the dog's house will be limited to curbside mailboxes in order to minimize the amount of time that the carrier is exposed.

"We're not going to let a third time happen," said Brandt.

In light of this information, the council regretted acting without knowing the full scope of the situation. However, there is little that can be done. The council considered holding a new hearing on the dog to adjust their previous stipulation about the fence, however, from consulting with their attorney, it was determined that going back on their previous decision would be legally perilous.

Ultimately, unless there is another incident, the city has no ability to force Turner to do more than what has already been agreed. While Taylor said that the Post Office would revert the policy were Turner to either remove the dog or install physical fencing, such a solution would be entirely voluntary for Turner.

Until then, neighboring residents will have until July 8 to install curbside mailboxes or make other arrangements, though Taylor says that the post office will be flexible in working with the affected residents.

 "We're trying to work with the customers as much as possible," said Taylor.