Residents of Springfield neighborhood speak out after no mail delivery for nearly two months

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KY3) - One Springfield neighborhood has gone nearly two months without getting mail delivered.

After five days of no mail in early April, Joe Brandel checked with the post office. Brandel says he was told that there was a wild dog roaming around, and that’s why mail delivery was stopped.

“Just because it’s a loose dog,” Brandel says. “I mean there’s gonna be a loose dog anywhere, so we need to resolve it.”

Brandel lives in the 2600 block of W. Nichols Street. He says the blocks between N. Clifton and N. Fulbright haven’t gotten mail delivered since early April.

Brandel says many people in the neighborhood have been putting the blame on one family.

“There’s a house down the street where they have two large dogs, and they basically told us that was the house. So everybody ganged up on that poor kid,” Brandel says.

That house belongs to Aaron Zabala. Zabala says he’s been given mixed messages from the post office and thinks its because he has two pitbulls.

“I went down to the post office and was told it was not my dogs at first,” Zabala says. “Then I was told that it was my dogs, and then again that it was not.”

Zabala says animal control even came by his house. He says some neighbors are still holding him responsible.

“My wife was home and she was the only one home and [a neighbor] came on the porch started yelling at her, telling her it’s our dogs and our fault,” Zabala says. “We’ve got to put our dogs away.”

Zabala says he and his wife are thinking about moving out of Springfield.

Neighbors have had to go to the post office to pick up their mail, which many say can be frustrating. Brandel says he doesn’t have the time to go pick up mail every single day.

“It’s at least a 30 minute trip every time you go down there,” Brandel says. “We’d like to get our mail daily, but I don’t have three hours extra a week to go get mail and that’s if it goes good. I went today and it was about a 45 minute trip. It’s frustrating, and nobody knows what’s going on.”

Brandel says he’s concerned he’ll miss deadlines to pay bills.

“Late payments or just the amount of time to put into it. It’s like three hours a week if we can make it every day,” Brandel says. “That’s if things run smoothly.”

Neighbors say they hope delivery picks back up soon.

KY3 reached out to USPS and the postal service sent us this statement in response mail not being delivered:

“We’ve been informed we have several loose dogs in that area that are prohibiting our carriers from safely delivering to the home. If a dog creates a dangerous environment and prevents the safe delivery of mail to the home, we will discontinue delivery to that residence until the situation is resolved.”