Defecating mailman is back on same route

PORTLAND, Ore. – A US Postal Service employee who was photographed defecating alongside a home on his delivery route is back on the job and back on his old route.

That isn’t sitting well with some southeast Portland residents.

The unidentified mailman was caught on camera near Patricia Yamal’s southeast Portland home as he squatted in the bushes in April of 2011. The evidence he left behind was also photographed.

While homeowner Yamal said she was surprised and shocked by his actions, she also said she does not harbor any ill will towards the mailman. She described the incident as a “funny, tragic kind of situation.”

Yamal said that once the incident was reported, Postal Service workers quickly came to her home and cleaned up the mess.

One man who lives near Yamal is not happy to see the man delivering mail in the neighborhood again.

“It’s just wrong, it’s unsanitary, it’s not part of a civilized community,” neighbor Rick Yeoman told KATU News. He said he thinks the worker should not be back on the same route. “We want him gone. We don’t trust him, we’ve had words, it’s just going to be an ongoing thing,” he said.

But Yamal disagrees with her neighbor. “I’m not bothered by the fact that he’s back, I feel bad for him.” She said the postman personally apologized to her on Wednesday at her home.

“I was shocked at the beginning,” she said. “I thought it was kind of strange. But then when I gave it more thought, just trying to be fair and human, I thought, it must be really humiliating for him to be back.”

A Postal Service spokesperson told KATU News that their privacy policy does not allow them to discuss disciplinary actions or why he’s back on the same route.

But they did say they had no prior reports of problems involving the mail carrier prior to the incident at Yamal’s home.