Postal carrier attacked by dog, saved by elderly woman

HIGHLAND, Ind. The mail carrier had a frightening brush with a dog while on her route.

Twenty-eight-year-old mail carrier, Danielle Lawrence, is back on the job doing her regular deliveries. She says survived a brutal dog attack by an American bulldog in Highland, Indiana Monday.

"It bit me in my left knee, tore my gloves off my hands, and it bit me in my butt," said Lawrence.

Lawrence says she was delivering mail in the 3500 block of Wicker Avenue when the huge dog pushed open a backyard gate and attacked her viciously.

"It just kept coming at me," she said.

Fortunately for Lawrence, 77-year-old Jo-An Michniewicz was backing out of her driveway when she heard the mail carrier screaming for help.

"He jumped onto her and knocked her into the street. It went for her jeans. She was frantic," said Michniewicz. "I pulled my car up as quickly as I could, right to the edge of the dog without hitting him. I opened the door and I said to her, 'Get in my car quickly.'"

"I got in her car. And if she wasn't there, the outcome probably would have been different," said Lawrence.

The postal worker, just hired seven weeks ago, said she used her mail bag and pepper spray to try and stop the dog but to no avail. She suffered multiple bite wounds, including a gash on her left knee. Lawrence said the owner of the dog put a flower pot in front of the broken gate to keep the dog from coming out.

"The dog owner, I feel, was irresponsible and should be held accountable," Lawrence said.

The dog's owner did not want to talk on camera and refused comment.

"Any dog that attacks a person and will continue to attack even after being sprayed should be either taken away or even put down," said Edlin Smith, Highland Postal Office.