She declined to talk to reporters. But neighbors are calling Apusen the protector of Cayuga Avenue. I wouldn't want to know anyone nicer. Postal Service officials are preparing an award for Apusen, whose second rescue in eight months is considered unprecedented within the U.S. Postal Service. Each year, about two dozen similar postal rescues are reported across the city, half of them in the San Fernando Valley, postal officials say.
Carriers often act as a neighborhood's eyes and ears, especially to seniors.
Last September, after delivering mail to elderly Mary Yamagata for four years, Apusen knew something was very wrong because her mail was piling up in her mailbox. Fearing the worst, he knocked on her door and shouted her name, only to hear moans. Peering through her window, he saw her collapsed and bleeding on the floor. She'd fallen, hit her head, and been too weak to get up. She'd lain there three days.