Postal mail service restored after 5 months when couple Turns to Ted

ROSENBERG, Texas (KTRK) -- When LaTonya and Patrick Hardy's community mailbox was knocked down, the couple and their neighbors had to make a 30-minute roundtrip drive to the post office several times a week to get their mail.

"For about six months we were going back and forth with the post office and the (Homeowner Association) about the mailbox being on the ground," LaTonya said. "How would they be replaced? Is there a part that needs to be replaced or what?"

The couple said the mailbox was knocked down in October. Although they've gone paperless with most of their bills, the couple said they still have some important paperwork, or letters from family or their jobs, that comes via the postal service.

After months and months of making trips to the post office and trying to get someone to fix it, the Hardys Turned to Ted in April for help.

"Between emails and phone calls and visits to the post office, no one knew anything," LaTonya told ABC13's Ted Oberg. "It was a lot of work just going back and forth to the post office, waiting in line in the post office and then sometimes you're not sure when the mail is going to run, so you have to leave and then come back again. It was just a big inconvenience and another inconvenience was no one really knew. No one had the right answer."

The couple said they're not entirely sure how the community mailbox was knocked over, but they just needed help getting it fixed.

"We watched Channel 13 all the time and so we see where Ted goes out and, you know, interviews and kind of gets the ball rolling, kind of nudges you a little bit," LaTonya said.

When the Turn to Ted team called the HOA, they said it was up to the post office to make the repairs.

"When we reported the broken box to the USPS, we were told by them they are responsible for replacing the boxes. They took the location information from us and stated they would order and replace the box," the HOA said in a statement.

We reached out to USPS, but they told us it was the HOA's responsibility to replace the box.

Still, the day after we called both to ask about it, the box was replaced and the couple started getting their mail.

"We apologize for any inconvenience that may have been experienced by customers living in the Rosenberg, Texas, subdivision with regards to their Centralized Box Unit (CBU)," USPS said in a statement to the Turn to Ted Team. "In this case, it is undetermined how the CBU was knocked down, however, local postal officials have taken immediate steps to address the situation. The Postal Service always seeks to make repairs and/or replacements of CBUs as quickly as possible."

Now, the Hardys are happy they no longer have to make that trip to the post office every few days.

"We have mail. We've been coming more often, because it's right here now," LaTonya said as she stood by her mailbox. "Just to walk down from my home to here is a lot better than driving down to Richmond to the post office."

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