成人X站

By Carolyn Ossorio

In the past seven years in Seattle, 90,000 people have moved to the city, Amazon has become one of the nation鈥檚 largest employers, and local mail carriers have delivered tens of millions of letters, cards, and packages to businesses and homes across the city.

Mark Middlesbrook鈥檚 Ballard home isn鈥檛 one of them.

But that鈥檚 not from a lack of desire. Middlesbrook would love to see letters return to the black mailbox nailed to his duplex on 58th Street.

But a longstanding dispute that the 42-year-old mortgage broker blames on a toxic combination of false 鈥渂ad dog鈥� reports, postal service mismanagement, and a lone letter carrier has left him — — unable to regularly receive mail at their homes since former President Barack Obama鈥檚 first term in office.

And now some residents have decided to fight back. Middlesbrook鈥檚 neighbor, Randy Erlich, filed a lawsuit against the United States Postal Service, the individual letter carrier, and two managers seeking compensatory and punitive damages for violating his civil rights.

USPS spokesman Ernie Swanson declined to comment specifically on the dispute and instead issued a statement centered on the USPS鈥檚 dog policy.

Middlesbrook said the problem began in March 2010. He came home and instead of mail, he received a letter from the USPS stating that his mail carrier filed a 鈥淒og Problem鈥� report.

According to the carrier, Middlesbrook鈥檚 dog — a pet he describes as gentle — was off leash in front of his house.

This, Middlesbrook learned, triggered the mail termination. The only way to get mail service back was to sign a 鈥淢emo of Understanding,鈥� which promised that any dog on his property would be kept under control during delivery hours.

Middlesbrook signed even though he strongly disagreed with the memo. He assumed everything was fixed.

A few weeks later, on June 24, the carrier submitted another dog problem report to her boss. This time it permanently terminated Mark鈥檚 mail delivery. The report said the dog was loose again.

But there was a problem. The carrier fabricated the entire story, Middlesbrook said.

And the fabrication isn鈥檛 limited to his residence, he said. He鈥檚 collected 13 complaint letters from his neighbors who said the same carrier had submitted 鈥渇ake鈥� dog problem reports to the United States Postal Service management.

Middlesbrook said after this, he permanently forwarded his mail to his parent鈥檚 home in Renton.

Then in December 2016, Middlesbrook鈥檚 dog died. But the carrier still wouldn鈥檛 deliver to his house.

After the family delivered the dog鈥檚 death certificate to USPS managers, he began receiving mail 鈥� for a short time.

Middlesbrook got a new dog in April 2017. Less than a month later, he received another official shut off letter from the postal manager of Ballard.

Middlesbrook said this mail feud over the past seven years is the first time in his life he has ever felt truly railroaded. The USPS management has, at best, turned a blind eye to the complaints, he said. At worst, it鈥檚 actively protected a long-term employee with a history of filing fake reports and bullying customers, he added.

鈥淒uring this time I felt that my input was not only unimportant but viewed with great negative prejudice by the USPS. It seemed clear to me that (the letter carrier) had established her complete and unchallenged control over our mail delivery.鈥�