The U.S. Postal Service has suspended delivery to several New Jersey homes after a dog attacked a mail carrier.
The residents in the cluster of homes on Durand Place in Rochelle Park must retrieve the mail on their own.
Joan Patti told NBC 4 New York that she was trying to tie her 3-year-old chocolate Lab named Max to the front of the house when the dog broke free and attacked the letter carrier last month. Jian Yang sustained six bites to his arm.
"He's a sweet dog," Patti said. "I never thought he'd bite anybody."
But Postal Service spokesman George Flood said the attack was the dog's third on postal carriers this year and service is only suspended as a last resort.
Patti said she didn't think her neighbors should be penalized.
"It's terrible, it's not their fault," she said. "I feel bad for them. We've got elderly people on this street."
Patti's neighbor, Cecelia Parciasepe, said she hoped the situation could be resolved somehow.
"This has to be straightened out," Parciasepe said. "Something has to be done, by the post office, by the town, I don't know who, but somebody has to do something."