Carlos Iniguez, a letter carrier in Sacramento District, earned recognition from Postmaster General Pat Donahoe for helping a woman who fell and broke her hip after she tripped over a rug in her home. The elderly woman had been crying for help for hours by the time Iniguez arrived.
“People say I was a hero,” Iniguez said, “I was just doing my job.” Iniguez was overcome with emotion when coworkers, family and friends gathered at the Los Banos Post Office to honor him for his heroism, with a thank-you letter from the Postmaster General.
“I was surprised,” he said. “It’s an honor. It’s the most beautiful thing that could happen.”
It was just an average day late last year when Iniguez was delivering his appointed rounds. But he sensed something was wrong when he heard crying coming from an elderly woman’s home. She had fallen and was all alone. Iniguez immediately contacted her family.
Because of his heroic actions, Iniguez got a personal letter addressed to him from the Postmaster General thanking him for not only delivering his mail but also doing the other informal thing that most carriers do on their own, and that is to keep their eyes and ears open in the neighborhoods that they serve. They know their neighborhoods so well that they know when something is wrong.
