Letter Carrier Matthew Seng was making deliveries last summer in Belvidere, IL, when he grew concerned about something unusual:
An older customer’s mail was piling up, and the woman had not greeted him for several days as she normally would.
After checking with a neighbor, who hadn’t recently seen the woman, either, Seng decided to call 911.
Emergency responders found the woman lying on the floor inside her home, in dire need of medical attention.
The neighbor later visited the local Post Office to thank Seng for saving the woman’s life, and her family members also told him she would not have survived another day.
“I was just doing my job and looking out for the customers on my route,” Seng said during a subsequent postal recognition ceremony. “You know customer habits and when something is different.”
Russ Haile, Belvidere’s postmaster, called Seng “an excellent employee who considers his customers friends and family, having served the same route for over 20 years,” as well as “an excellent role model for the newer carriers.”