Mail Carriers Keep Eye On The Elderly Postal Workers Alert Supervisors If They See Signs Of Something Wrong

Mail carriers are delivering peace of mind to elderly and disabled people along their routes.

Under a new program called Carrier Alert, about 5,000 postal workers are keeping an eye on certain homes and notifying their supervisors if they notice mail piling up or other signs of something wrong. The supervisors will call authorities.

“A lot of time we’re the only person that some people see all day,” postal carrier Zaldy Delacruz explained as he stopped at Clarence “Doc” Ochsner’s home in Hollywood to show him a Carrier Alert sticker.

“It’s a good idea. We’ll go for it,” said Ochsner, 78, as his wife nodded.

Carrier Alert is similar to a national program attempted in 1982, said Ann Delorise Smith, general manager of the city’s Department of Aging.

“It kind of fizzled and died out by about 1990,” she said.

The free program was resurrected last fall in West Hollywood, a Los Angeles suburb, when a 72-year-old woman died after robbers locked her in a closet.

Carol Fuller, a widow, died of starvation about two months before her body was discovered. Fuller’s mail delivery was halted by her carrier when nobody collected it from the mailbox, but authorities were not called until a neighbor wondered why Fuller had not been seen for a while.

West Hollywood’s 83 mail carriers have reported trouble only once since starting the program. An elderly woman left home on a Christmas visit without having her mail delivery temporarily stopped, said Joyce Patterson, West Hollywood post office station manager.

Residents who sign up for the service receive a tiny sticker that reminds mail carriers to look for anything suspicious at that address. Officials hope to soon expand it to San Fernando Valley areas.