A usually ‘friendly and happy’ Evri delivery driver has been sacked after he was caught on camera shoving a wooden mop through a customer’s letterbox to ‘hit’ her beloved Labradors. Zoe Mitchell says the ‘happy chap’ driver has been her regular for around five years so was stunned when her Ring doorbell app filmed his outburst earlier this year (August 28).
The 31-year-old’s shocking footage shows him poking the hard end of a wooden mop through her letterbox as he glares through the partially frosted front door window. He then violently thrusts the mop forward to apparently ‘hit’ her two ‘friendly’ dogs Bella, eight, and Reggie, seven, who often bark when a delivery comes.
The recruiter is confused why the courier would want to attack her dogs but suggests they could have ‘caught’ his hand as he tried to post a ‘safe place’ delivery note. In footage from seconds earlier, dog barks can be heard when the man rings the bell but Zoe says there’s no footage of him pushing the note through.
She’s been left ‘upset and angry’ by the incident and complained to Evri the same day. However, she says the same man has delivered to the house twice since then.
Zoe, who lives alone with her dogs, says she’s scared for her own safety and shared her story in the hope it would push Evri to relocate the driver. After being contacted, Evri confirmed it has sacked the courier and said that while the driver’s hand had been bitten when making the delivery, his actions were ‘inexcusable’ so he wouldn’t work for them again.
Zoe, from Pontefract, West Yorkshire, said: “I felt sick when I saw it because I knew they would be up against that door. Bella would have both paws on the door and her belly would have been covering that letterbox, so I think he’s hit the dogs and it might have shocked them.
“The dogs could have nipped at him but you can’t see that on the video and there’s a wall-mounted parcel box to use anyway. Even if they did, that doesn’t excuse what happened afterwards. If they’d have had their mouth open then it could have done some serious damage.
“At first I thought he was throwing the parcel through but when I watched it again he’s chuntering something when he walks to the door and he’s angry. He peeps through the glass, angles the mop and forcibly hits it through, then he pulls it out and throws it down. He seems so aggressive.
“When he hears the dogs barking in the first video he stands back from the door so he knows the dogs have come down the stairs and gone to the door. They do dive at the door and bark so people will think I have guard dogs but they’re soft as anything when you open the door and they’re really friendly.
“He must have been having a really bad day and he might have put the delivery note through and then the dogs could have dragged it off him and caught him.”
Zoe, whose clothes were delivered to her ‘safe place’, says her external post box could have been used so she isn’t sure why the driver chose to pass the note through her letterbox in the first place.
Zoe, who claims she reported the incident to West Yorkshire Police, says the driver has been kind when she’s spoken to him before and she’s even previously given him a five-star review. Zoe said: “What shocked me and lots of people is he’s been the local Evri guy for five years and I’ve even given him five-star reviews before.
“He’s friendly to talk to when I’ve been in and opened the door and when I’ve not been in he’s left my parcels in my garden by my patio window to make sure they’re safe. Everyone on the estate has said he’s such a friendly, happy chap.”
She has now taped her letterbox shut and stuck a notice on it telling delivery drivers to ‘please use the post box on the wall’.
After posting the video on Facebook, one user commented: “Wow that’s SHOCKING!”, while another said: “Wow if he feels confident to do that on camera imagine what extent he would go to not being recorded. Worrying! Disgusting behaviour.” A third added: “I’d be absolutely fuming if this was me. I hope you get sorted.”
Evri confirmed the driver would not work for them again but said it was a rare incident and their couriers have been awarded more than three million five-star ratings on Trustpilot.
They said Zoe reported the issue to a member of the local team who was then unexpectedly away from the business – they apologised that this ‘was not escalated effectively initially as it should have been’. They said they have since spoken Zoe to offer support.
An Evri spokesperson said: “These actions are not the caring behaviour that we expect from our couriers and we have apologised wholeheartedly to the customer.
“Unfortunately, the courier’s hand was bitten when delivering to this property, however their reaction to this was inexcusable. We have a zero-tolerance approach to behaviour of this nature and have taken immediate steps to ensure that this courier will no longer deliver for us.”
West Yorkshire Police have been contacted for comment.