Baton Rouge residents' mail found tossed in the trash

BATON ROUGE - Seven Oaks resident Timothy Joyce almost got his lights turned off last month.

"They almost, well they kind of threatened to turn it off, but eventually they didn't. We always pay our bill on time," he said.

The reason why?

"I didn't get my energy bill last month, I wonder if that's what's in that dumpster."

The dumpster Joyce is talking about is one that contained a full bin of undelivered mail.

Some letters contained bank statements, bills and other important information. The mail was discovered by the Goodwood Property Owners Association's former president.

He said he was instructed not to talk to the media by post office officials after he took the mail bin to them. He has since removed the photos he posted online.

We reached out to USPS and were told that the investigation is ongoing and the employee who dumped the mail is currently in a non-duty status. It wasn't made clear if 'non-duty status' meant the employee was still getting paid and our questions to officials could not be answered.

"It's kind of disappointing. I never thought it would happen; I've never heard of that happening before," Joyce said.

After speaking to several Good Wood residents, many of them said they have had problems with mail not being delivered for years, but they never thought it would be sitting in the trash.