PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Federal postal authorities are investigating a mail carrier for allegedly dumping mail in East Greenwich.
Several businesses in and around Main Street in the 02818 ZIP code began complaining earlier this week of not receiving any mail from Saturday through Wednesday.
Joan Rouleau, owner of East Winds Dry Cleaners at 4619 Post Rd., just over the line in Warwick, said the lack of mail was hurting businesses, which need to pay their bills in a timely fashion. Also, she said, a neighbor never received a birthday check that had been mailed by her grandmother.
Rouleau said that she called a postal inspector Wednesday and was told that a mail carrier who fills in for vacationing carriers had been caught in connection with the undelivered mail.
"He told me that he had been apprehended and was in federal custody, but that he couldn't say more because it was an ongoing investigation," said Rouleau.
Rouleau said that she started receiving her mail again Thursday.
Scott Miller, an assistant special agent with the postal service's Office of Inspector General in Syracuse, N.Y., said Saturday that the matter is under investigation but that nobody has been formally arrested at this point. He said that some of the undelivered mail has been recovered, and urged anyone who thinks they're missing mail to contact the inspector general's Providence office at (401) 229-9250.