A Royal Mail postman in Clifton, Salford, returned to his round on Monday to find that the van he was supposed to be driving had got on with the job without him.
CCTV footage captured by a nearby resident shows the moment the unattended Royal Mail van rolls down a residential street, picks up speed, and ploughs straight into a parked car on the opposite side of the road.
The postie, who had reportedly failed to apply the handbrake properly, can be seen in a follow-up clip sprinting back towards the van after realising what had happened.
The collision left the parked car with what its owner described as extensive damage to the tail lights, bumper and rear panels. Thankfully, no one was inside it at the time.
What happened next is the part Royal Mail will probably want to look at.
According to the resident who captured the footage, the driver got back into the van and drove off, despite the visible damage to the vehicle he had just hit. He only returned to the scene around 20 minutes later, and even then, apparently not out of remorse.
“The postman didn’t seem to care at all until he saw the van had crashed,” the resident told the Manchester Evening News. “
After driving away, he came back 20 minutes later as ours is the only road that can take you back to the main road. He stopped then, but only I think because me and the car’s owner were stood outside.”
In other words, the only reason he came back was geography.
The incident is the latest in a long line of Royal Mail mishaps we have covered recently, from trolleys being stolen in broad daylight to missing gold bars and a sickness rate sitting at nearly triple the national average.
Whether the owner of the parked car will hear anything further from Royal Mail, or simply be left to chase the claim themselves, remains to be seen.
You can watch the footage in full below, courtesy of the Manchester Evening News.
