Rural Carrier Veiga Saves the Day

By Lee Upfold Supervisor, Customer Services North Lauderdale Annex Serving as a member of the United States Postal Service, is a time honored tradition. Like police, fire and the military – many generations of family members serve side-by-side each other. Pride, dedication, technical expertise and selfless service are common traits among our ranks. Most of our customers have no idea of our 24-hour process and unique challenges we overcome each day, just to put the mail in the box. They know if the Post Office is delivering and the mail is somewhat on-time, there is some normalcy to their lives. Although many of our members serve behind the counter and in the back, the letter carrier is our ambassadors to the local community. We hear on the news of the letter carrier from Coral Springs that saved the babies life that drowned in a kiddie pool in the front yard, with an adult a sleep next to the pool. The carrier revived the baby, handed him back to the woman and drove off, without so much as giving his name. There are many stories like the one above and every letter carrier hopes that they too, will be prepared to act as quickly and bravely. Every story doesn’t always have a happy ending. Every letter carrier has to be ever vigilant on their routes. Something that looks so innocent can be very dangerous and life threatening. Such is the case of Rural Letter Carrier Ismary Veiga. Ismary was on her route and noticed an elderly lady, looking kind of lost. Ismary asked if she needed any help but the lady said no – that she was only handing out flyers. Ismary noticed that the lady didn’t have any flyers in her hand, but she continued on her route anyway. On the way back up the other side of the street, the same elderly lady was still in the same place, still looking confused. Ismary wanted to do something, but what. She remembered seeing a police officer in the park. She went and told the officer what she had seen, and the officer responded. It was a good thing he did, the elderly lady was actually the lookout for her fellow crooks inside the house, and the officer walked in on a robbery in progress. Let’s be helpful, yet safe.