Missouri postal worker says he found a gun inside a mailbox, and reveals the mistake he made before calling his supervisor

A United States Postal Service worker in Missouri says he found a handgun inside a mailbox while working his delivery route, according to a post he shared on the Reddit forum r/USPS. The worker, who posts under the username Zerochronic, said the discovery happened about a week before he wrote about it online.

Zerochronic said there was “not much to say” about the incident, though he shared an image of the firearm sitting inside the mailbox. Several Reddit users who responded to the post said the weapon appeared to be a Glock handgun fitted with a laser sight and what they described as a 24-round magazine, based on comments left under the post.

Zerochronic identified himself in the comments as a City PTF, a term used for a part-time flexible postal worker. He did not name the location of the mailbox beyond saying it was on his route, and Reddit users referenced St. Louis in their replies, though this has not been confirmed.

Worker says he touched the gun before realizing the mistake

In a comment under his own post, Zerochronic said the gun appeared to fall when he opened the mailbox, and that his first reaction was to put it back inside. “Well, my tired [expletive] saw it fall on the ground, so I put it back in the mailbox,” he wrote.

He then said he realized that by touching the firearm, he may have left fingerprints on it. “Then realized I just put my prints on a gun.. so [I] called work, and they had a postal inspector deal with it,” Zerochronic wrote. Based on his account, he contacted his workplace after the incident, and a postal inspector was sent to handle the firearm.

Mail carriers spend their routes building familiarity with the same homes and faces every day, a routine that occasionally produces its own viral moments, like the emotional send-off one mail carrier received after years on the same neighborhood route. 

He also said in a follow-up comment that finishing the rest of his route took longer than expected because of the time lost dealing with the discovery, writing, “me still having to finish my route + OT with 2 hours less time now yay.”

The Reddit post drew a large number of comments, with many users offering differing opinions on how the situation should have been handled. Some commenters said they would not have touched the firearm at all, citing concerns about contaminating what could be considered evidence.

One user took a different approach, joking that they would have picked up the gun regardless, writing, “I’d have grabbed it. PROTECT THE MAIL.” Another commenter pointed out a policy concern, noting, “Guns are not allowed on federal property.”

Other users focused less on procedure and more on the situation itself. One person  commented simply, “Free gun😂,” while another suggested a different course of action, writing, “Bring it back to the office, postage due.”

Someone who identified themselves as a CCA, said they would have called law enforcement regardless of who owned the mailbox, citing child safety as a concern. “I would call the police. Even if the mailbox is someones property. Don’t want any kids getting their hands on that,” the user wrote. Mailboxes themselves have been the subject of other unusual reports involving postal routes, including one account of a driver crashing into several mailboxes in Washington state.