On Thursday, September 29, at about 2:30 p.m., Rural Carrier Wayne Conner of the North Charleston Post Office was in his vehicle on Nevonna St. when he spotted what he first thought was a toy gun in the street. To be sure, he pulled safely over and removed it. It turned out to be a .45 caliber handgun that was cocked and loaded. Nearby was a schoolbus stop.
Conner, whose route runs off Rivers Avenue near Trident Hospital, notified his supervisor of the issue, and then called 911 to report it. He remained in place until police arrived to take the weapon into custody. “I’m glad it caught my eye,” he said, “we could’ve had a tragedy.”
Conner will receive a letter of commendation from Postmaster General Pat Donohoe for action above and beyond the call of duty to his customers. Annually, over two hundred postal employees are recognized for heroic assistance to others in a time of need.
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A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation, 150 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes. The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations. With 32,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, usps.com, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $67 billion and delivers nearly 40 percent of the world’s mail. If it were a private sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 29th in the 2010 Fortune 500. Black Enterprise and Hispanic Business magazines ranked the Postal Service as a leader in workforce diversity. The Postal Service has been named the Most Trusted Government Agency six consecutive years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute.
