Home video catches mail carrier going ‘postal’ on garbage can

We’ve all seen videos of people behaving badly. Now there’s a new one making the rounds of a mail carrier who apparently ran over a garbage can on purpose.

The video comes from Bhaskar Das, who lives near downtown Los Gatos.

Das’ Nest Cam recorded the video Friday on Oak Grove Avenue.

The video shows the mail carrier plowing into the garbage can and using the mail truck to push it out of the way. Once it fell over, the carrier backed up, delivered Das’ mail and drove off.

“The garbage can was 1 or 2 feet from the mailbox,” Das said. “We try to make sure it’s not in front of the mailbox, but I didn’t know it had to be a certain distance away.”

By Monday, Das was able to laugh about the incident. But he was none too happy on Friday.

“It was not fun,” he said. “I had to pickup all the trash that spilled on the road.”

Das recently moved to Los Gatos from San Jose and said he’s unfamiliar with curbside mailboxes.

“All the mailboxes were attached to the homes in my old neighborhood,” he said. “The post office needs to communicate better, so we know how far away the garbage cans should be.”

Apparently, there are no hard and fast rules for that.

“While we ask residents who get street-side delivery to keep obstructions away from both sides of the mailboxes, the carrier should not have moved the trash can with his vehicle,” United States Postal Service spokesman Augustine Ruiz said in an email. “Our policy for blocked mailboxes is to park in a safe area and dismount to make the delivery.”

He called the incident “unfortunate.”

There’s no word from Ruiz on who the carrier is or what prompted the bad behavior, but Das said, “No one should lose their job over this.”

The carrier who was caught on camera will be given a refresher course on mail delivery etiquette, as will all Los Gatos letter carriers, Ruiz said.

As for Das, he’ll be keeping his trash can well away from his mailbox in the future.