Posted on 04/01/2017 4:58:29 PM PDT by BBell
Carolyn Gray stepped out of her Rosecrest Lane home in River Ridge Friday afternoon (March 24) and was shocked to find the mailman on the ground in her front yard.
"He was laying in the grass, flat on his back," Gray said. "He had an armful of mail."
Gray, 79, and a couple who was passing by rushed over to help the letter carrier, later identified as Mitchell Molitor, 55, of Metairie. They weren't sure whether he had suffered some sort of medical emergency like a heart attack.
But Molitor's "wobbly" gait and glassy eyes convinced the couple to confiscate the keys to his mail truck and call in authorities, who eventually determined he had been driving around and delivering mail while intoxicated, according to an arrest report.
And it was not the first time.
Friday's arrest was Molitor's third DWI since 2011 and the second to involve the operation of a postal service vehicle, according to Jefferson Parish court records.
The U.S. Postal Service has remained mum about Molitor's criminal history and what, if any, policies the agency has to address employee DWIs. Molitor's most recent arrest left many in the community unsettled knowing that, despite two convictions for driving while intoxicated, he was still on the road as a representative of a federal agency.
"Why did the post office let him drive that mail truck?" Gray asked.
Repeat offender
Molitor remained jailed Tuesday at the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center on a $27,900 bond. His blood alcohol content at the time of arrest was 0.16 percent, twice the 0.08-percent legal limit, according to authorities.
In addition to DWI-third arrest, Molitor was booked with having an open container of alcohol, illegal possession of drugs without a prescription and false swearing to obtain two driver's licenses.
(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
There are a lot of Baptist in Northern Louisiana. They have dry Parishes up there. Parishes are the same as counties down here.
And he was rollin in his little postal truck.
Yes, they are uniform in shape so they are a lot easier to stack than a bunch of odd sized boxes. One guy I know who is retired from the post office now told me this one guy loved it. He made lead projectiles for bullets and he loved those IIFIS boxes. It cut way down on his shipping costs.
I assume NO still permits open containers?
Of course. I live just north of NOLA and we have an open container law but it is rarely enforced, especially during the parade season. If you act right the local LEOs don’t mess with you.
If only they’d been doing this for the past 4 decades.
Not true. I used to drive a postal vehicle and I had to periodically show that I had a valid driver’s license that wasn’t expired.
Rollin’ in and rollin’ out....right on to the ground ;-)
I remember a gas station in Louisiana that sold frozen margaritas. No open containers for them. They put a plastic lid on the cup, and then sealed it with scotch tape.
I saw a postal truck on my street last Sunday and wondered what was going on. Thanks for the information.
Damn. Drunk mailmen everywhere.
You betcha.
Incorrect. In order to drive ANY Federal, or Postal vehicle, the driver is REQUIRED to have in his/her possession a valid Standard Form 46, which is the driver's license.
How do I know this to be a fact? Simple. During the course of my military service, one of the duties I was responsible for was the issuance of those same Standard Form 46's.
the infowarrior
33 years, 1 month, and 12 days, and I NEVER had a drink while I was delivering!
Hold muh mail.
My former FIL was a mailman and he used to say the PO demands the carriers work a set amount of hours, regardless of whether they need that much time to cover their route. He used to say he could easily have finished his route in half the time, but they weren’t allowed to go home when they were done. As a customer, I’d rather get my mail in the morning rather than wait til 3 or 4 pm just because the mailman has to stretch it out. Shows how much waste there is at the USPS and how they build in slack time.
Yeah, so do I. Usually the house number is correct (or close), though. Makes me think that there are a bunch of English-as-a-second-language people working as mail sorters. It's gotten progressively worse over the past ten years.
At least my important mail is usually handled by FedEx, USPS Priority or UPS and goes to my UPS Store box. Very few things come directly home.
I’ve had that box for years. It’s for Ebay, CC, magazines, and warranty stuff. The box is a great junk mail filter and cheap security.
They sign for my stuff, know me, and send alerts when anything with a tracking number shows up.
You are to be commended. I did not mean to imply that all mailmen drank on the job.
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