A Fort Thomas mailman is now considered a local hero after saving an 84-year-old woman's life during one of his route to the neighborhood.
Karl Herklotz is a Fort Thomas postal worker who has been delivering mail along the usual route for eighth years. Throughout those years, he has grown familiar with the neighborhood, its residents, and their routine. Not to mention that he also lives in town and raised his kids there.
Speaking to Fort Thomas Matters, he said that he knows the people there from school situations and from attending St. Tomas Church. It is a great community, he said, where people are pretty polite and there is lots of activity.
Something was not right that day
And so when he noticed something unusual that particular day, he felt something was wrong and it nagged him as he walked down the sidewalk. According to Fox 19 report, Herklotz walked up to the house located on Rossmore Avenue last Monday, September 28, and placed the mail in the mailbox as he would normally do.
On the outside, the house on Rossmore Avenue looked normal but the mailbox, owned by an 84-year-old woman, was noticeably full that day. He thought that mail has possibly not been retrieved from the mailbox since Saturday. That is obviously not right because the elderly woman, whom he describes as a very pleasant lady, is religious when it comes to picking up her mail.
He said he has known her for a long time and they go to the same church. He said she is very independent and does everything by herself. They would often talk whenever he finds her working in the yard. So, he knows her situation.
On the day that he found the mailbox untouched, he felt something was wrong. He found her car was still out front so she must be inside. He then went back just to make sure she is okay. However, nobody answered even as he pounded on the door.
Neighbors stepped in to check on her
Continuing on his route, he asked the neighbors if they have seen her over the weekend. Neighbors did try to contact her but she was not answering her phone, Her neighbor Katie Giancola called the Fort Thomas Police to do a welfare check on the woman. Herklotz said that the police found her laying on her side on the kitchen floor. She was suffering from a broken hip and could not get up.
Police said that she has been there probably since Friday. If she had been for much longer, she may not have survived, the police added. The elderly woman apparently fell and broke her hip. She was taken to the hospital and had hip surgery. She is now recovering.
Giancola said that everyone let out a sigh of relief and thankful that she was found in time and alive. She added that Karl is definitely a local hero.
"I've always looked for things like that," said Herklotz. "If they hadn't gotten there when they did," he adds, "she would have perished." He doesn't consider himself a hero, he humbly told Fox19 Now, but just a neighbor looking after other neighbors in the neighborhood.
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