Man sets rat trap to catch mail thief; snaps postal worker

BRADENTON (FOX 13) - A homeowner says he was sick and tired of thieves stealing his mail, so he set a trap, literally.

Nicholas Dibble put a mouse trap in his mailbox, but instead of catching a thief, he got himself temporarily banned from mail delivery service.

Dibble’s trap snapped on his mail carrier, who had just recovered from a broken hand.

It all started with some missing bills.

“My April water bill didn't come in so I assumed that I had discarded it when I was throwing away the junk mail," Dibble said.

But after missing more pieces of mail and sending out checks that seemed to disappear, he came to the conclusion that someone was stealing his mail.

“The post lady said that she didn't pick up anything out of my mailbox,” Dibble said.

He filed reports with the U.S. Postal Service and called the Manatee Sheriff's Office, but he says when that went nowhere, someone suggested setting a trap.

“It was suggested by someone to put a mouse trap in the mailbox. Well, I didn't have one. I had to borrow a rat trap,” Dibble explained.

He baited it, put it in his mailbox, and waited to see who he would catch red handed. When he saw his mail carrier approaching the box, he came out to warn her about the trap was inside the mailbox. By the time he got there, it was too late. She had already been snapped.

“I kept telling her, ‘I’m so sorry,’” he said. “Her hand was shaky. I was really concerned in regards to her wellbeing."

Making matters worse, her hand had just healed after being broken.

“She shouldn't have been caught in on that, on her job, and that was a stupid thing on my part to do,” Dibble said. “My intention was not to catch her, but to catch the thief that was stealing my mine."

Nicholas has since learned to pay his bills online and his postal worker is back to work, but cautiously delivering his mail.