SC postal worker runs over dog and keeps driving in video, owners say. See for yourself

Yogi is 8 ½ years old. He’s an Aussie German Shepherd mix who loves to sit near the house and watch the few cars and trucks that go by on the Gouge family’s long dirt driveway on 22 acres outside Walterboro.

Most days he gets some extra pets and maybe a treat or two as packages are delivered.

Then came Monday.

Yogi was sitting in his usual spot when the mail carrier came by.

Next thing Paula Gouge knew he came inside and laid down on the bathroom floor.

Moments later a neighbor called and said Yogi had been hit by the mail carrier’s truck. She did not stop. The neighbor saw it all as she sat on her porch.

Gouge looked at her Ring camera and she saw it all, too. Warning, the video may be upsetting to some viewers.

She checked on Yogi and saw he was bleeding.

They rushed him to the emergency vet and learned his hip was dislocated and femur broken. He had a spinal injury.

“He is 90 pounds of all-good boy,” she said on the gofundme page set up to pay what is likely going to be a $10,000 bill for surgery and other expenses.

Her husband Rodney said, “He’s my joker. He makes you laugh.”

They both said he is a member of the family, along with three children, two grandchildren and two other dogs, a bulldog and a teacup aussie.

“Yogi has never chased a car,” Paula Gouge said in an interview Thursday with The State.

She’s not sure why he did Monday. The carrier had delivered packages, went to a neighbor’s and was on her way back out of the Gouge’s property. They own both sides of the driveway and the neighbor has an easement to use it.

Rodney Gouge reported the incident to the United States Postal Service.

“We haven’t heard squat,” he said.

A spokeswoman for the Southern Area Corporate Communications Office of the Postal Service told The State on Thursday that, “The Postal Service strives to always provide the best possible service to our valued customers. It is disappointing when, on rare occasions, we fall short of that goal.”

She said Walterboro Post Office management has addressed the situation with the letter carrier, who was not named.

“We sincerely apologize to our customer,” she said., declining to answer further questions while the investigation is ongoing.

We “will take all appropriate actions based on the results of the investigation to ensure that the integrity and values of the USPS are upheld,” she said.

Rodney Gouge said he wants the Postal Service to pay the vet bills, but most importantly, he wants the carrier to apologize for hitting Yogi and for not stopping.

Colleton County animal control officer Suzi Reeves did not return a phone message but she told Live 5 news the driver will likely face at least two citations.

The Charleston-area station said the driver told Reeves she didn’t know she hit the dog.

There is some good news. Yogi had surgery Thursday and will be going home Friday. The orthopedist did not have to amputate his leg as was feared.

It will be a long recovery — eight to 10 weeks immobilized inside the house — for Yogi and for the Gouges before he can once again lie down by the chicken coop, nose in the wire fence, watching over his flock or stand sentry by the front door.

This story was originally published July 14, 2023 at 6:30 AM.