Sometimes – and don’t tell my bosses – I’ll get a little overwhelmed or exhausted and let something fall through the cracks at work. Not totally inconsequential, but still somewhat small. An email, for example. Or some type of small admin work. Not great, not bad, but relatable. Normal, even. But I, like most reasonable people, probably wouldn’t fail do to the main component of my job.
As a writer, it’s literally in the name of my job – much like firefighter, driver, singer, post officer. It’s a hard duty to ignore, and one of those things where, upon entering the industry, you can safely assume your job will involve.
But that’s more or less exactly what a New York postman is being charged with after he was found with over 17,000 pieces of mail hoarded in his car, apartment and work locker. The oldest dated back to 2005.
Aleksey Germash is being charged with delaying & detaining mail for 12 years of his 16 years with the US Postal Service. Ever sent a letter to Dyker Heights, Brooklyn? There’s a pretty solid chance it didn’t make it there.
Hopefully this didn’t create some sort of mass Atonement recreation, where thousands of letters between lovers were intercepted, ruining lives. I guess we had MSN back in 2005.
The jig was up in April, after someone noticed that 20 USPS mail bags were stuffed into a blue Nissan Pathfinder belonging to Germash, according to the court papers. Authorities have since allegedly found 10,000 pieces of mail in his car, 1,000 in his work locker and 6,000 in his house.
He had a very, very good reason though. According to court statements, Germash said he “was overwhelmed by the amount of mail he had to deliver.”
But, on the plus side, he “made sure to deliver the important mail“, a subjective judgment that only the person receiving their own mail has the right to determine.
Germash faces up to five years in prison if convicted, and is currently on bail.
Source: NY Post
Image credit: John Gress/Corbis via Getty Images
