Woman burns hands because of mail

GREENE COUNTY, Ind. (WTHI) - Brenda Gibson, of Newberry, walked to her mailbox Oct. 14, a walk seemingly like any other. But the walk back was like none other. Gibson said in just the time it took to get back to the house it felt like she had third-degree burns on her hands.

"I won't go to my mailbox," said Gibson. "I'm just scared, you know, that I almost died."

She still has a box of checks she received that day with a spotty brown residue on the packaging. After two trips to the doctor, she was told it looked like she had chemical burns on her hands.

Her daughter, Chastity Sheffler, rushed her diabetic mother to the hospital with extremely high blood sugar Friday. They both think it's related to the mail.

"I don't know if she was going to live or not because she got so bad," said Scheffler.

Gibson will not go back and get her mail, even wearing gloves. She has her a friend retrieve her mail wearing gloves, then open the envelopes with a box-cutter.

"It's really scary," said Gibson. "I don't know if i'll ever be able to go back to that mailbox."

Gibson said she had called the Greene County Sheriff's office three times informing them of the incident. She said no one has seem interested in investigating.

"I can't believe the sheriff's department or nobody will do anything about it," said Scheffler.

News 10 was told the sheriff was not in Wednesday and no one was made available for comment.

Gibson said she saw an unfamiliar large car that sounded like it had no muffler the night of Oct. 13. Her dog scared off the vehicle. The next day was when she got burned.

"I mean you might expect something like that to happen in the big city but not in a place like this," said Scheffler.

Gibson said she also contacted her post office. No one else has reported a similar incident.