Monday, September 21, 2009

Margate's LaFleur Saves the Day! Alert Carrier Helped Foil Burglary

To Whom It May Concern:

I am writing this letter to recognize one of your Margate postal carriers, Christine LaFleur.

My wife and I own a small business, and one thing that we have noticed is that people are always quick to complain, but when something good happens, they never speak up. We have adopted a policy that those who deserve recognition get the attention they deserve.

On Saturday, September 12, Christine was instrumental in stopping a burglary to my neighbor's house and helped apprehend the two criminals. She was our hero!

I was in the kitchen when the doorbell rang. My older son said "It's Chris , the mail person." So I went to the door. Chris handed me a letter and said that "I think some guys are breaking into your neighbor's house. Call the police." I grabbed our portable phone and walked outside with Chris to peek around the corner. As we did, we saw two individuals with backpacks look in our direction and then start to hurry away from my neighbor's house. I started to dial the police when another neighbor from across the street came out and said she also was calling the police.

The two individuals started to walk faster. I was worried that they would disappear before the police got there so I ran inside while Chris stayed with her mail truck, got my cell phone, and grabbed my bike out of the garage and started to follow them at a distance. I made sure they could see that I was on my cell phone. I got yelled at later by everyone because what if they had a gun, but I didn't think of that, I was just worried that they might get away.

I stayed on the phone and told my neighbors where they were, and where they were going so they could relay it to the police. They started running into Coral Bay, a community next to ours. I was concerned that once they got in the community, they could take off and disappear.

I have to say I was also impressed with the Margate Police Department because right about then two officers came racing in and stopped the two individuals in their tracks before they could disappear. I rode over to the officers and told them that these were the two individuals that I had followed.

When I got back to my neighbor's house, there were now several police officers there. Christine and my other neighbors were giving statements as to what they had observed. It turns out that these two individuals had already gotten my neighbors front door open! They were about to go into the house and clean it out when Christine saved the day. My neighbors were away in Pennsylvania for a couple of weeks visiting their kids. They wouldn't have known they were robbed until they returned home.

Christine LaFleur went above and beyond what was required and we hope she gets the recognition that she deserves. You see enough bad stories on the news these days. It's really nice to see something good happen for a change.

Our thanks go out to Christine for taking the time to care.

Sincerely,

Bruce and Juli Van Der Meulen and family, and all our neighbors!

(James Lafaman, Manager, Customer Services, Margate, is proud of his employee. Thanks for sharing this customer commendatory.)

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