Byline: By Mike Padgett, Staff writer
Judy Ball, a mail carrier for 14 years, had just started her route in west Phoenix. It was
midmorning on Sept. 12 on an average residential street lined with older homes.
Ball tried to concentrate on her work and ignore the man standing alone in the driveway, staring at her. Since most of the mailboxes in her area are by the sidewalk, Ball drives her route instead of walking it. She has 563 customers.
As Ball pulled up to where the man was standing, she stopped the truck and turned to reach for the mail in the tray next to her.
When she turned back to step out of the truck, the man was standing in front of her. He was agitated, and he had a gun pointed at her face. All she remembers about him is that he was a black man, ''kind of muscular,'' and he had a red baseball cap on backwards.
''I was thinking to myself, 'God, this can't be happening,' '' Ball said.
The stranger demanded a bag full of mail. Ball stepped back in her
truck and quickly stuffed a bag (mostly with SeePOSTAL,Page4
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catalogs) and handed it to him.
The stranger kept the gun less than a foot from Ball's face. He ordered Ball to get down on the floor in the truck so she couldn't see him escape. She told him there wasn't room.
''And he said, 'Well, just put your head down,' '' Ball said.
She leaned over sideways and faced the floor. She couldn't see the gunman, and she didn't hear anything.
''Then I heard him run away. But for a few seconds there, I didn't know if he was going to shoot me in the head.''
One week later, on Sept. 19, mail carrier John Lawes was shot in the back of the head on a different route in Maryvale. Lawes survived and is receiving daily therapy for problems he has with his vision and balance, Postal Service officials said.
In November, a federal grand jury indicted Albert Times, 39, and Tony Buck, 19, in the shooting of Lawes. Buck also is charged with the armed robbery of Ball.
Because of those two attacks, and because of burglaries of parked and locked mail trucks in Phoenix and Tempe early last month, the National Association of Letter Carriers, Phoenix police and the Phoenix Block Watch Advisory Board are planning new measures to protect mail carriers.
One is a buddy system in which residents in Block Watch programs look out for suspicious activity around mail carriers and their vehicles.
If would-be thieves knew that residents were on the lookout and ready to call police, they might think twice about robbing the mail carriers, said Richard Fox, president of the Phoenix Block Watch Advisory Board.
Ken Bielek, president of the Phoenix chapter of the letter-carriers' union, said buddy systems have been used in other states, including California and Wisconsin, to help protect mail carriers.
The Postal Service also is considering a system that would allow carriers facing emergency situations on their routes to notify supervisors without alerting robbers.
Spokeswoman Yolanda Stenson refused to release details of the electronic system. She said Postal Service officials could make a decision ''any day now'' on the proposal, which would be offered first to carriers in the Maryvale station because of the attacks on Ball and Lawes.
In addition, Phoenix police plan to offer safety training classes that will include tips on how to react to threats from armed attackers, said police Sgt. Joe Cherrick in the patrol division's community programs section.
Ball said colleagues have been asking about transfers to other stations.
Right after the gunman robbed her, Ball bought a cellular phone that she carries everywhere.
''I'm paranoid,'' she said. ''We deliver our mail and we go into a lot of bad areas.''
Stenson said officials are discussing adding two-way radios to the trucks.
Still, despite the crime that mail carriers sometimes encounter, many of their patrons are glad to see them. Ball said some of her customers show her their new babies or leave cookies or a glass of cold water for her.
''There are a lot of great people out there,'' Ball said, loading her truck for another day on her route. ''They watch out for you.''
Color Photo by Mark Henle, Staff photographer ''I'm paranoid,'' says mail carrier Judy Ball, shown loading her truck. She was robbed at gunpoint in September and now carries a cellular phone.