Some Hyde Park Residents Say They've Gotten No Mail For Weeks, Are Missing Necessities Such As Medicines
CHICAGO (CBS) -- No mail for weeks – it's an issue in Hyde Park, where CBS 2 heard from a few people who are missing shipments they need.
CBS 2's Tara Molina talked to an elderly man who relies on prescriptions he gets in the mail. She also asked the U.S. Postal Service what's going on and what they're going to do to fix it.
The people we talked to can't wait any longer. They have been waiting on prescriptions they should have had delivered almost two weeks ago.
For Roy Coleman, it has been three weeks since the mail stopped coming. He said before this, he has never had a problem with the mail in Hyde Park.
"Some of the other people in the complex are having the same problem," Coleman said.
A retired science teacher, Coleman and his wife, Diana, have called a quiet stretch of Kimbark Avenue home for decades.
"We've only seen the mailman twice," he said.
But it's more than missing mail to Coleman.
"The only thing that I'm concerned about are the two medicines," he said.
Coleman needs those two prescriptions just to get through the day. Shipped two weeks ago, they usually get to him in a day or two.
Where does he think those prescriptions are right now?
"Probably sitting at the Post Office, because we're not getting anything," Coleman said.
One of those prescriptions is really important.
"Zolitol, for my heart," Coleman said. "This is the one the guy says whatever you do, run out of the house with it - even if you're naked."
So with his current supply running low, Coleman be out at the end of the week. He has to figure something out with his doctor, mail issue or not.
And he is trying to avoid having to do that, as he is at high risk for COVID-19.
But Coleman never heard back about the complaint he made to USPS, trying to reach his nearest Post Office several times.
"Rings, rings, rings, and on the ninth or tenth ring, it goes to busy or somebody hangs up," Coleman said.
So we tried. We found the Post Office at 4601 S. Cottage Grove Ave. open and active.
But we know they did shut down at one point a little over a month ago due to looting damage amid civil unrest in the area.
Molina reached out to a spokesman for Chicago's USPS District with information from Coleman and others we've heard from in the same 60615 ZIP code. The spokesman said they were looking into it.
"I really do need the medicine," Coleman said.
Late Tuesday night, Coleman said big stacks of mail were dropped off at the complex where he lives, for everyone. But the prescriptions were still nowhere to be found, he said.