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Caught On Video: Mail Carrier Brings Woman Into Truck With Him, Leaves Her There With Mail On Northwest Side

CHICAGO (CBS) -- A mail carrier was caught red-handed – he was supposed to be hard at work, but instead, recorded video shows he had a woman in his truck with him, and the mail from a Northwest Side Chicago neighborhood.

As CBS 2's Eric Cox reported, the video was shot by a man sitting right there on the block where it all happened.

The mail truck was parked just a couple houses away, while the worker and a woman were inside. What they were doing, only they know.

"To actually capture something like that, it's like, wow, you know, that's why the mail's taking so long every day. I'm not crazy," said Rocky Flowers of the Dunning community.

But he's certainly concerned. Flowers works a security guard, and he had his body cam recording as a mail carrier parked his truck on his block Thursday afternoon.

Flowers had his phone in his hand, and was trying not to get noticed after a car pulled up and a woman approached the postal truck.

"They're in there for 10 minutes, him and her," said Rocky Flowers' wife, Janette Flowers. "Maybe they were doing something inappropriate."

Janette Flowers said she got on the phone and called the Post Office.

"As I go to call, he gets out of the truck, and she's still in the truck," Janette Flowers said.

The woman was in the truck alone as the worker continued making deliveries.

CBS 2 reached out to the United States Postal Service. A representative said letting a non-postal worker into the truck is against policy, but not necessarily against the law.

Still, the Flowers said they are worried. They believe the who was in the mail truck could have done any number of things while alone inside – including mail theft, a federal crime that could land you in prison for five years.

"Regardless of what you're doing, hey, that's not even what anybody cared about," Rocky Flowers said. "You left her alone in there with everybody's stuff."

Soon, supervisors showed up.

The Postal Service said the worker has been placed on unpaid leave – all while an internal investigation is under way.

As for the woman who was in the mail truck, she hopped out, driving away after being left alone with the mail. It was mail that wasn't hers, but may have belonged to Flowers.

"They honestly just let her leave like it was no big deal," Rocky Flowers said.

The Postal Service representative also admits that right now, they do not know if the woman tampered with anyone's mail.

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