Postal carrier caught on camera spraying dog with pepper spray in Upper Arlington
An Upper Arlington man said a US Post Office carrier pepper sprayed his dogs, who were safely behind a privacy fence. Tom Martin said the whole thing was captured on his doorbell camera. (Courtesy: Tom Martin)
UPPER ARLINGTON, Ohio — An Upper Arlington man said a US Post Office carrier pepper sprayed his dogs, who were safely behind a privacy fence. Tom Martin said the whole thing was captured on his doorbell camera.
"I saw him spraying his pepper spray underneath the gate," he said. "Leaning down, spraying his pepper spray."
Martin said he watched it all unfold in real time on his phone.
"I was devastated. I was mad. I almost went ballistic. How could anybody do that? Why would anyone want to do that? The dogs don't even bark until the mail carrier walked away."
The mailbox is on the garage door, so the unidentified carrier had to walk around the corner and then about 40 feet to get to the gate.
Martin tried to complain to Post Office supervisors, and was promised a call back.
That was nine days ago.
"Nothing," Martin said. "I got no phone calls. No mail from it nothing, up until today."
We sent the video to postal officials, trying to get an answer for Martin, and got this emailed response a few hours later:
The actions in this video are unacceptable employee behavior. The Postal Service neither condones nor tolerates this type of alleged behavior by any employee. The Postal Service is currently investigating the complaint and depending on the results of this investigation, appropriate corrective action will be taken consistent with the provisions of the applicable contractual agreement.
Around the same time as that response, a supervisor showed up at Martin's house.
"She listened to me," he said. "She apologized. But my thing is nine days. It’s been nine days."
Martin said he also filed a police report, and the mail carrier showed up while he was talking to the cops.
The postal carrier told police he felt threatened by the dogs.
He then told Martin, he was being reassigned to another route.
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