Mailman Runs Awry in Isleton
By Corey Lyons
Contra Costa Newspapers
Aug. 28, 2001
ISLETON -- In a sleepy Delta hamlet widely known for its annual crawdad festival, the mail often arrives like a daily jolt of excitement.
So it turned Isleton upside down when a rural letter carrier went on a bizarre joy ride and failed to deliver the goods one day.
Earlier this month, a clamor of concern swept through the sun-baked community off Highway 160 while authorities tried to retrace the steps of the wayward postman.
In the aftermath, the mailman was fired and arrested on an outstanding warrant while the postmaster of the Isleton Post Office made the 55-mile round-trip deliveries himself.
While authorities think all of the mail has been recovered, nerves are still jangled along the affected route.
"A lot of people out here care about two things: What the weather will be, and when the mail will come," said Kandace Korth, one of the owners of Korth's Pirates' Lair Marina. "When the mail doesn't come, people are crushed."
The incident underscores the fragile nature of small-town postal delivery, in which tiny mail teams are often forced to tackle sizable problems.
In Isleton, two carriers handle thousands of pieces of mail that arrive daily.
"You can spin this story any way you want to," said town postmaster Richard Webberson. "It's either about bureaucracy screwing up again or about a small town coming together, which is what I see."
The story began July 30 when Laurence Lyttle, a relief carrier for the Isleton Post Office, set off with a truckload of mail.
Called Rural Route 1, the delivery path is a series of twisted levee roads that wrap around the Delta. Locals call it the Delta Loop.
A carrier makes 420 stops along the way, delivering 3,000 to 5,000 pieces of mail. With darkness approaching, Webberson said he told Lyttle to return in about an hour and finish the following morning.
"We don't like to have anyone out after dark," said Webberson, Isleton's postmaster since 1994. But three hours passed. Webberson already had called police by the time Lyttle walked through the back door. It was 10:45 p.m.
The postmaster was steamed. "I came close to letting him go," he said, "but I prefer not to do anything in an emotional state, for the carrier and myself." So Webberson, an affable man in his early 50s, decided to wait until the facts poured in.
It didn't take long. Witnesses told authorities that a man driving a truck with a US MAIL emblem on the door had been involved in two hit-and-run incidents that night.
While no one was injured, Lyttle allegedly had crashed into a fence near Pirates' Lair Marina and rolled over a water main at a trailer park on Brannan Island Road. None of the mail had been delivered.
"He had a lot of training. We had high hopes for him," Webberson said of Lyttle, whom he had hired in May.
The next morning, a resident flagged down Sacramento County sheriff's Deputy Patricia Kelley at San Andreas Landing RV Park.
Kelley was told that a black Chevrolet truck with US MAIL across the door had backed over a water valve. The driver also had tried, unsuccessfully, to climb the side of a hill toward the main road.
"The water valve that he ran over had just been replaced a month ago," said Donna Warner, who owns the trailer park. "It was something that you couldn't miss if you were wide awake."
Lyttle, meanwhile, was arrested and fired when he returned for work Aug. 4. He was charged with an outstanding warrant from San Mateo County for failure to appear. Postal inspectors are investigating the case, but have not charged Lyttle with any crime.
Lyttle could not be reached for comment.
Acting on a tip, police confiscated the mail from Lyttle's truck Aug. 6.
Apologies were sent to each of the folks on the affected route. The mail was finally delivered.
While searching for a new relief carrier, Webberson had loaded the daily crush of mail into his Saturn and set out along the winding, pockmarked roads of Rural Route 1.
"Our major concern is the security of the mail, or the sanctity of the mail, as we refer to it," he said in his office. "It was a situation that existed, and we took care of it as soon as possible."
Meanwhile, most Isleton residents are not bitter about the recent disruption. Life moves on.
On a recent day, some townsfolk were seen hooking minnows to the end of their fishing lines or watching the cars roll by while sipping coffee at Hawg's Cafe.
"Everyone, in the course of their lifetime, has a lapse in judgment," said Warner, the trailer park owner. "That's my philosophy in life. But it becomes more of a problem when you're in a position of public trust."
Contra Costa Newspapers
Aug. 28, 2001
ISLETON -- In a sleepy Delta hamlet widely known for its annual crawdad festival, the mail often arrives like a daily jolt of excitement.
So it turned Isleton upside down when a rural letter carrier went on a bizarre joy ride and failed to deliver the goods one day.
Earlier this month, a clamor of concern swept through the sun-baked community off Highway 160 while authorities tried to retrace the steps of the wayward postman.
In the aftermath, the mailman was fired and arrested on an outstanding warrant while the postmaster of the Isleton Post Office made the 55-mile round-trip deliveries himself.
While authorities think all of the mail has been recovered, nerves are still jangled along the affected route.
"A lot of people out here care about two things: What the weather will be, and when the mail will come," said Kandace Korth, one of the owners of Korth's Pirates' Lair Marina. "When the mail doesn't come, people are crushed."
The incident underscores the fragile nature of small-town postal delivery, in which tiny mail teams are often forced to tackle sizable problems.
In Isleton, two carriers handle thousands of pieces of mail that arrive daily.
"You can spin this story any way you want to," said town postmaster Richard Webberson. "It's either about bureaucracy screwing up again or about a small town coming together, which is what I see."
The story began July 30 when Laurence Lyttle, a relief carrier for the Isleton Post Office, set off with a truckload of mail.
Called Rural Route 1, the delivery path is a series of twisted levee roads that wrap around the Delta. Locals call it the Delta Loop.
A carrier makes 420 stops along the way, delivering 3,000 to 5,000 pieces of mail. With darkness approaching, Webberson said he told Lyttle to return in about an hour and finish the following morning.
"We don't like to have anyone out after dark," said Webberson, Isleton's postmaster since 1994. But three hours passed. Webberson already had called police by the time Lyttle walked through the back door. It was 10:45 p.m.
The postmaster was steamed. "I came close to letting him go," he said, "but I prefer not to do anything in an emotional state, for the carrier and myself." So Webberson, an affable man in his early 50s, decided to wait until the facts poured in.
It didn't take long. Witnesses told authorities that a man driving a truck with a US MAIL emblem on the door had been involved in two hit-and-run incidents that night.
While no one was injured, Lyttle allegedly had crashed into a fence near Pirates' Lair Marina and rolled over a water main at a trailer park on Brannan Island Road. None of the mail had been delivered.
"He had a lot of training. We had high hopes for him," Webberson said of Lyttle, whom he had hired in May.
The next morning, a resident flagged down Sacramento County sheriff's Deputy Patricia Kelley at San Andreas Landing RV Park.
Kelley was told that a black Chevrolet truck with US MAIL across the door had backed over a water valve. The driver also had tried, unsuccessfully, to climb the side of a hill toward the main road.
"The water valve that he ran over had just been replaced a month ago," said Donna Warner, who owns the trailer park. "It was something that you couldn't miss if you were wide awake."
Lyttle, meanwhile, was arrested and fired when he returned for work Aug. 4. He was charged with an outstanding warrant from San Mateo County for failure to appear. Postal inspectors are investigating the case, but have not charged Lyttle with any crime.
Lyttle could not be reached for comment.
Acting on a tip, police confiscated the mail from Lyttle's truck Aug. 6.
Apologies were sent to each of the folks on the affected route. The mail was finally delivered.
While searching for a new relief carrier, Webberson had loaded the daily crush of mail into his Saturn and set out along the winding, pockmarked roads of Rural Route 1.
"Our major concern is the security of the mail, or the sanctity of the mail, as we refer to it," he said in his office. "It was a situation that existed, and we took care of it as soon as possible."
Meanwhile, most Isleton residents are not bitter about the recent disruption. Life moves on.
On a recent day, some townsfolk were seen hooking minnows to the end of their fishing lines or watching the cars roll by while sipping coffee at Hawg's Cafe.
"Everyone, in the course of their lifetime, has a lapse in judgment," said Warner, the trailer park owner. "That's my philosophy in life. But it becomes more of a problem when you're in a position of public trust."
posted by Corey at 2:53 PM
1 Comments:
Sounds like something he would do and not think anything of it. His only concern is himself. Regardless of his false humility. The deeper you look into him the more shallow he becomes.
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