NEWTON COUNTY, Texas — Residents of the Indian Lake Community in Newton County are without mail service after a neighbor allegedly had an altercation with a USPS mail delivery driver.
Michelle Rodriguez tells 12News 20 residents had their service cut off.
Rodriguez has been living in the rural Indian Lake Community since she was seven years old.
In all her years there, she's never had issues receiving her mail, until now.
"Around New Year's, they were outside. There were some kids playing. The mail lady was coming through he said she was speeding," Rodriguez said. "So he had stopped. He told her to slow down. He said that she threw his mail on the ground, said that she had another package and took off."
Rodriguez says her neighbor confronted the USPS driver.
When the worker tried to drive off, Rodriguez says her neighbor blocked the road and called the Newton County Sheriff's Office.
Since that day, every time Rodriguez goes and checks her mailbox, it's empty.
"That person should have to go pick up their mail because they made the issue now they're making all of us be forced to go do this and you've got a lot of elderly people out here that don't have vehicles that have to find people to go pick up their mail, she said.
She says the post office in Orange never notified her that mail would be stopped and when she went to ask about the issue, no one offered a solution.
"Switch drivers so it will be somebody else and she doesn't feel threatened. I don't understand that or why don't they put a community box at the end of the road for us then they were trying to say that would fall on us," Rodriguez said.
12News stopped by the post office on Thursday, trying to get answers.
They said they couldn't provide information unless we were a resident or receiving mail.
12News also knocked on the door of the neighbor who had the alleged altercation with the USPS driver, but they weren't home.
Rodriguez was told the best thing she could do is rent a P.O. Box.
"It's still out of the way. It's costing us extra gas then it's a monthly note when we had free service. Just doesn't make sense to me how this is even legal," Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez says she won't stop fighting for her mail service to be returned, even if that means filing a petition, reaching out to city leaders or contacting a consumer advocate in Washington D.C.
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