Mail on interstate: Georgia pastor finds thousands of pieces of 'undeliverable' mail on highway

Pastor Male Atkins, who runs the nonprofit, Miracle Honesty Foundation, says he was dropping off some items for the homeless, when a piece of paper hit his windshield. It turns out that piece of paper was an improperly discarded letter. There was plenty more where it came from.

Mail littered on Georgia interstate

The backstory:

Pastor Atkins witnessed the alarming site along I-285.

"I said, ‘Why is mail hitting my windshield?’" said Atkins. 

He looked over and saw thousands of pieces of mail scattered along the side of the interstate.

"It was thousands of people's mail, IDs, driver's licenses, mortgage payments, urns, ashes," said Atkins.

Atkins says he called police and the post office, but says he didn't get much help.  

He decided he couldn't just leave all the letters filled with personal information out in the open, so he got to work. He says he spent hours picking up thousands of pieces of mail. He then dropped them off at the closest post office, hoping the mail would get delivered to the rightful owners. 

"I took it to the post office, and they were like, ‘Okay. Next.’ That was it," he said. "There was no 'thank you.' It was like nobody cared."

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Pastor Male Atkins said he tried to pick up as much mail as he could on I-285 after USPS says a contractor spilled the "undeliverable" items.

U.S. Postal Service responds

What they're saying:

FOX 5 Atlanta contacted the US Postal Service.

USPS said a contractor dropped some of its load along the highway.

A spokesperson released the following statement: 

"The Postal Service takes seriously the security and sanctity of the mail, including when transporting items on roadways across Georgia and the nation.  In this specific instance, a vehicle which was operated by a contractor (not USPS personnel) inadvertently dropped some of its load along the highway.

"The material contained in the load had been deemed undeliverable to its destination. The Postal Service follows specific procedures to verify and dispose of this type of material, using contracted services.  No mail or packages destined for delivery were contained on the vehicle.

"Once alerted to the situation, local postal officials dispatched personnel to retrieve all dropped material."

What we know:

A FOX 5 Atlanta crew at the scene confirmed many of the letters on the ground did have the yellow "undeliverable" labels, but not all of them.

Atkins said even if they couldn't be delivered, some of the letters still contained personal information that could end up in the wrong hands if left on the side of the road. 

"I can pick up a piece of paper right now with somebody's social security number on it. Right now. Plain open. Just do better USPS, do better," said Atkins.

Despite the last line of the statement that reads "local postal officials dispatched personnel to retrieve all dropped material," a FOX 5 Atlanta crew circled back to the site later that Wednesday and reported hundreds of pieces of mail still left on the side of the interstate.

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Pastor Male Atkins said he tried to pick up as much mail as he could on I-285 after USPS says a contractor spilled the "undeliverable" items.

The Source: FOX 5 Atlanta reporter Denise Dillon interviewed Pastor Male Atkins and visited the stretch of I-285 where the mail had been dropped. Dillon's crew also returned later in the day after U.S. Postal Service issued the above statement to the FOX 5 Atlanta newsroom.

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