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Beach grandma takes action to get mail delivered

Posted at 11:38 PM, Mar 27, 2013
and last updated 2013-03-27 23:38:33-04

Virginia Beach, Va. - Francine Froeling may be the oldest person on Burr Oak Court in Virginia Beach, but she is not giving up without a fight--and without her mail.

"I'm just speaking on behalf of 17 people,” Froeling says. “You know, I’m the old lady on the street. I'm the oldest one on the street. This is not right. This is not right."

After a storm blew over the street's mailbox several weeks ago, Froeling says she has tried to get it replaced, but to no avail. She reached out to NewsChannel 3 to help her get results.

"Oh we're going to fix it,” Froeling says she has been told. “We're going to fix it. They haven't fixed it."

With no mail being delivered, that leaves residents to fend for themselves.

"I Have to go to the post office,” Froeling says. “I don't even know where the hell it is to pick up my mail."

Helene Conaway also lives on Burr Oak Court.

"It almost takes us 20 minutes to get there and back and that's not fair to us,” she says. “You know, after a hard day's work we don't want to go somewhere to pick up our mail."

Conaway’s husband relies on the mail for his medication from the VA.

"He has to come home and he drives the van and gas is high, so he has to go back out and check every day to get his medicine,” Conaway says.

NewsChannel 3 took action and called the post office on Production Road, where residents have been driving to get their mail.  They tell us that the maintenance department is working on getting it replaced, but would not tell us when that would happen. NewsChannel 3 then reached out to a Virginia Beach postmaster we were told would have more information about when the mailbox would be replaced. The postmaster has not yet returned our call.

Froeling says it's really very simple. "Why not put the mail box up and put our mail in it?" she asks.