It’s not just the recent wintry weather that’s hindering mail services in the country. If you’re a resident of Rocky River, Ohio, you have turkeys, not sleet or snow, to blame for your missing mail.
Cleveland.com reports that a flock of “aggressive” wild turkeys are preventing the United States Postal Service from delivering to residents on at least six streets in the Cleveland suburb, with between 25 and 30 homes not receiving their mail for roughly three weeks. Under the town’s ordinances, the birds can’t be killed, so mail carriers have resorted to air horns. Even with that armament, though, some have been pecked but not seriously harmed.
Rocky River Mayor Pam Bobst says easy access to food is the reason for the birds’ presence and unusual behavior.
“There’s a lot of bird feeders over there, so there’s a food source in that area,” Bobst told Cleveland.com. “It is an issue, so we’ve asked residents to cease putting out bird seed and bird food so we can see if they will go down to the Metroparks.”
Postal employees are beginning to deliver the mail in the evenings to avoid the brazen birds, but residents can also pick up their mail at the post office while the problem persists.
Photo: Jeff Engel Outdoors/iStock