Postal worker in viral TikTok appears to throw mail in dumpster. USPS investigating
A postal worker appears to be throwing mail in a dumpster in a viral TikTok video shot by a Tennessee resident.
The United States Postal Service said it’s now investigating the incident.
A Nashville woman uploaded the two-and-a-half-minute video to her TikTok account, MRS_DENTON19, the weekend of Aug. 3. In the first few days, the video accrued 2.7 million views.
The woman said this happened in Antioch, which is a neighborhood in Nashville.
The video shows a man carrying bins that appear to be full of mail back and forth between a marked USPS van and a dumpster.
He’s seen emptying the bins into the dumpster and going back to his van for more as the TikTok user expressed outrage that people’s important mail, including checks and bills, looked like they were being thrown away.
She said the man was looking around to make sure he wasn’t being watched.
“I can’t make this up,” she said. “This gotta be a crime of some sort.”
The man is seen placing an empty bin in the front seat of the vehicle, then sliding open the back door of the van to empty four more.
“Please don’t tell me this is what y’all do to get rid of mail,” the TikTok user said.
In a part two, the user shows him get in the van and drive away.
The U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General told McClatchy News the carrier who appears in the video has been placed in a non-duty status as the agency investigates.
“We apologize to our customer for the actions seen in the video, which is clearly unacceptable behavior that does not reflect the efforts of the thousands of professional, dedicated carriers in our workforce,” a USPS spokesperson told McClatchy News.
The TikTok user told WSMV she reported the incident to USPS, and officials came to retrieve the items.
“They both physically had to go in there and get the mail out themselves into bins,” she told the outlet. “I’m glad that, hopefully, whatever mail they were able to retrieve, that they get to the homes that they need to get to.”
The USPS Office of Inspector General said more than 650,000 people work for the agency, and this type of incident is rare.
The TikTok video was uploaded a few days after a USPS carrier in the Atlanta area was arrested and accused of dumping mail in the woods and bringing some home.
Anyone who suspects mail theft by a USPS employee can report it to the Office of Inspector General’s hotline.
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