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Nov 29, 2005 11:34 pm US/Eastern
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Postal Carrier Describes Brutal Attack
by Todd Quinones
NEW JERSEY (CBS 3) ―
A mail carrier is recovering from a severe beating after what police say was an unprovoked attack. Investigators say one man is under arrest after an argument over a storm door.
The unbelievable story played out on Monday afternoon in Burlington County, New Jersey.
Hamilton Township Police say 26-year-old Jose Anthony Vega-Lopez had a verbal and physical exchange with the 37-year-old postal worker because he was unhappy with the way the mailman shut his storm door after delivering the mail.
"It sounds very unreasonable but that is what the suspect tells us," said a spokesman for the police department.
The mailman described the incident saying, "Apparently he was yelling across the street about, you know, he didn't like the way I closed the storm door. He started pushing me, I pushed him back and before I knew it he was throwing punches."
The entire neighborhood is still in shock. Many of the neighbors on Lalor Street that separates Hamilton and Trenton witnessed the attack on their mail man and still can not believe that it happened.
"He was punching him in the face and the head, and when he was on the ground, he was kicking him," added Chapman.
Chapman says her neighbor that lives on the street chased the mail man across the street as he was delivering mail and knocked him to the ground.
She added the mailman, who has done the route for close to a year, is a nice person saying, "(He) was pleasant, does his job, and never causes a problem," explained Chapman.
"They said I was bleeding pretty bad, they wouldn't let me move until the ambulance came," described the postal worker.
Lopez's wife claims the mail man hit here husband first, but the mail carrier says that is not true.
The postal carrier has a concussion and he is trying to recover and forget the attack,
Lopez has been charged with aggravated assault and is being held on $50,000 bail. Officials say he could even face federal charges for assaulting a postal employee.
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