Mail Truck Hit-&-Run Caught On Film, Investigation Shrouded In Secrecy

SAN RAMON, CA — A San Ramon man is trying to recoup the losses he suffered after a United States Postal Service worker slammed into his car and ran off. Talk about an unwanted delivery.

More than a month after he reported it, he still doesn't know if authorities opened a criminal investigation into the hit-and-run despite video footage capturing the whole thing.

On April 19, Brady Muir’s kids told him that something was wrong with their 2015 Volkswagen Jetta, which was parked outside their home on San Tomas Drive. Muir looked through his Ring camera footage, which showed a post office truck ramming hard into the back of the Jetta, causing it to move forward several feet. The post office worker then backed up and drove away, without leaving a note.

“If I hadn’t looked through my camera, I would have never known,” he told Patch. Now, many people know: he posted the footage on Instagram and received 180,000 views and many outraged comments. Posts on Nextdoor and TikTok also got large responses.

The next day, Muir called the San Ramon Police Department, but because it was a Saturday, he was directed to a non-emergency dispatch answering service, which is contracted with the San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District. The dispatcher told him that because the hit-and-run was done by “federal property,” he would need to go through the United States Postal Inspector, rather than the San Ramon Police Department. Patch has reviewed an audio recording of this call.

“The Post Office has their own police force, a very big police force, it seems to me that they would have jurisdiction, but San Ramon certainly has jurisdiction over a crime,” said Dan O’Malley, a personal injury and criminal defense attorney from O’Connor, Runckel & O’Malley in Walnut Creek. “You would think that you’d want an independent agency doing the investigation, not the post office itself…both agencies have jurisdiction, but there’s certainly no reason why San Ramon cannot investigate that crime.”

SRVFPD Deputy Chief of Operations/EMS Jonas Aguiar told Patch that a trainee gave Muir the advice, and she should have conferred with superiors first. Aguiar said she has been spoken to and given remedial training. Because the call was made on the weekend, the San Ramon Police Department told Patch that it did not have any record of this report, but stated that Muir is welcome to file a new report with them.

Muir eventually got in touch with someone at the San Ramon Post Office, who eventually came to his house to take pictures. He was directed to call the USPS’s insurance department, who told him he needed to get two estimates, and they would get back to him in about six months. A postal service spokesperson has not yet responded to Patch efforts to verify Muir's account.

In the month since the incident, Muir said he’s heard “radio silence” from USPS regarding the investigation. Patch reached out to numerous postal service departments to learn the status of the investigation and the employee but received only the following response from spokesperson Meiko Patton:

“Unfortunately, we are unable to discuss any potential employee administrative action, but we consider this a serious matter. Nor are we able to disclose any personal information regarding this employee. The employee has not been on their route since this incident.”

With four kids, a wife, and a lot of places to go, Muir didn’t have six months to wait. He filed a claim with his private insurance company, which declared the car a loss because a frame in the back is irreparably bent. He would receive $10,200, minus a $1,000 deductible he still has to pay.

“Now I gotta try and find a car like the Volkswagen Jetta that was in great shape, 72,000 miles - I can’t replace that car for the amount of money they’re giving me,” he said, noting that similar cars cost about $5,000 more than he was given. “I just want to have a car exactly like the one I had, and whatever you want to do with that employee is what you want to do.”

O’Malley said that if Muir files criminal charges, he could be entitled to restitution, which would pay for missed wages due to days in court and the cost of the deductible.

“I’m a middle-class guy, I got six kids, I got two kids in college and another one going to college next year, with inflation and everything, now I gotta somehow muster up another five grand to somehow be able to get another car,” he said.