JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Residents of a neighborhood on Jacksonville’s Westside are experiencing mail delivery disruptions after their community mailbox was vandalized last month.
Since the incident, neighbors have been attempting to contact the post office for assistance in repairing the mailbox, but their efforts have been unsuccessful.
News4JAX visited the community mailbox on Somerset Grove Lane. It looks normal from the front where people grab their mail, but the back was damaged.
A neighbor who wished to remain anonymous shared surveillance footage of the person damaging the mailbox on Dec. 8.
She expressed frustration, saying, “The current problem we’re having is, nobody will communicate with us. We file a ticket. The ticket’s gone. Go to the 800 number. They refer us back. We’ve been told, ‘Oh. So unfortunately for you, if somebody vandalizes, everybody’s got to pay the consequences.’”
She’s called her local post office without receiving any answers. Attempts to contact the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office have also been unproductive.
As a result, she now has to travel to her local post office to pick up her mail, which is a significant inconvenience for some community members.
“That is a big inconvenience for me, and I’m not speaking just for myself,” she said. “There are seniors here. It’s maybe 17, 21 houses, something like that. We’re one street, and they are so rude to us. They hang up on us, they put us on hold, and then disconnect us.”
Residents must now drive to a post office on Blanding Boulevard, which is about 19 minutes away, further than their closest post office which is about 15 minutes away.
The anonymous woman is disappointed with the lack of progress in resolving the issue. She says she received mail this week that was post-dated from November.
“It’s over a month and 36 hours of my personal time. I work very, very hard, and I’m also disabled. So when I miss work, and I’m also responsible to complete that work. I’ve got student loans out there. Like I said, I’m disabled. That impacts my medications,” the woman said.
News4JAX reached out to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and the media contact for the Jacksonville Postmaster General. We have not heard back at this time.