For failure to deliver, he's his customers' hero
Pay homage, then, to overstressed, overworked mailman Steven Padgett, who has confessed to
a cardinal sin among the letter carriers tribe: He failed to deliver.
"Mailman Steve" -- a pudgy, kindly 58-year-old who toiled along a route in a rapidly
growing neighborhood here -- was given probation in federal court this week for squirreling away
at least seven years' worth of undelivered junk mail, which he had stacked in his garage and buried
in his yard.
According to his attorney, Padgett felt overwhelmed by the torrents of "direct advertising mail"
he was obligated to deliver as he contended with heart problems and diabetes.
It should come as no surprise that the U.S. Postal Service did not receive a single complaint
from Padgett's customers about missing mail during the years he withheld pizza circulars,
oil change discount notices and Chinese menus.
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/nov/22/nation/na-junk-mail22
