ANDERSON, Ind. — An Anderson postman is facing charges for allegedly spraying a dog with pepper spray through a front door mail slot.
David Vanlandingham is facing charges of cruelty to an animal and criminal mischief.
According to a United States Postal Service special agent, the investigation began after 13News ran a story on the incident, which showed doorbell camera video of Vanlandingham. According to court documents, Vanlandingham has been with the USPS for two and a half years.
The investigator said he spoke with Vanlandingham's superior, who allegedly said Vanlandingham used his USPS-issued pepper spray and did not have a history of being bitten by a dog or making a complaint about the dog at that address.
Kerrigan Cronk told 13News that Vanlandingham sprayed through the slot in her front door.
"My blood was boiling. I was furious. I just didn't know what to think. I was upset, furious. Everything in between," Cronk, the dog's owner, told 13News at the time.
According to court documents, she told the USPS investigator she was coughing and sneezing while trying to clean the pepper spray off of her dog.
"I don't understand it because he stuck our mail in the slot and then went out of his way to spray our dog. He could have just stuck the mail in the slot and then walked away, but he chose to stay and continued to spray our dog," Cronk said.
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Cronk told investigators the pepper spray hit the dog, the walls of their home and went into the kitchen.
"It could've been much worse. Like I said, if it could've traced onto my baby, I don't know what could have happened. We would have had an emergency room visit," Cronk said.
The USPS investigator spoke with the Cronks and found what appeared to be pepper spray residue inside of the mail slot.
When questioned by the investigator, Vanlandingham alleged the dog had nipped his fingers previously and had ripped mail from his hands numerous times. He allegedly said he told his supervisor. When the supervisor was asked, he told the investigator he didn't remember ever talking to Vanlandingham about a dog nipping him or getting an accident report involving a dog. He said the first he heard of it was when Vanlandingham told him on May 9, the day he allegedly sprayed the dog.
When talking about why he sprayed the dog, Vanlandingham allegedly said he was upset and "lost his s**t."
USPS sent 13News a statement at the time of the incident, writing:
"The Postal Service extends sincere apology to the customer whose dog was sprayed by the carrier in this incident. The action displayed by the employee in the online video does not reflect the efforts of the thousands of professional, dedicated carriers in our workforce.
We are unable to comment further on a specific individual personnel matter."