Sleet, snow OK, but just don't ask for mail near snakes
DENVER — A Denver family has given in to the demands of a postman afraid of snakes in their yard.
Laurie Simmons got a letter Friday explaining that she had to either move the mailbox from the porch to the curb or she would have to get a post office box to receive the family's mail.
"I had no idea it would be an issue like it is," Simmons said.
Simmons and her family rent the home in Denver's University Hills neighborhood. She said the two snakes that live in her flower bed are garter snakes, which are harmless.
But the United States Postal Service says it takes safety of all mail carriers seriously and if a carrier feels a property is unsafe, he or she can choose not to deliver mail there.
The carrier was "genuinely afraid," said postal service spokesman David Rupert. "We don't look under the tail to see what kind of snake it is. A snake is a snake when you're out delivering."
Simmons says her landlord originally refused to move the mailbox, instead offering to remove the snakes. Simmons didn't want that because she feels the creatures are an important part of the ecosystem.
On Tuesday, the landlord installed a new mailbox at the curb.