Mail carrier refuses to deliver packages inside Florida nudist community

HUDSON, Fla. — It has been a credo of the U.S. Postal Service for years: “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”

Delivery to nudist camps, apparently, is another matter.

Residents at a Florida nudist community are upset because a postal carrier refused to deliver packages inside the gates of the resort, WFLA reported.

Residents of the Eden RV Resort and City Retreat in Hudson, located north of Tampa, said they are being discriminated against by the U.S. Postal Service. Residents said a substitute mail carrier did not want to walk inside the camp because she was afraid she might see naked people, WFLA reported.

“It offends me that she does not do her job because if she can’t do her job, then she shouldn’t be having this job,” said Eileen Hudak, who has lived at the resort for 10 years and calls it a “family resort.”

The park, which was been in its Pasco County location since 1968. It is a clothing-optional facility that has mailboxes outside its gate, but when a package does not fit, the regular carrier has no problem delivering them inside the camp, residents told WFLA. FedEx and UPS also deliver on a regular basis. But when one female carrier subs for the regular mailman -- and it happens frequently, residents said -- packages do not get delivered.

“She marks it undeliverable, whether it fits in the box or it doesn’t, so we don’t get the mail that day,” Hudak said. “And sometimes the mail is important. Like with our neighbor, medication sometimes. You can’t wait until Monday or Tuesday to go get it.”

Leonard Rusin, a disabled veteran, is fed up that every time one carrier is working, he has to go to the post office to pick up his packages.

Rusin describes the community as a family and says the mail carrier needs to be more professional.

“There’s a postal creed and it doesn’t say anything about not going into a nudist resort,” Rusin said. “I pay for a service, and I expect that service.”

Enola Rice, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Postal Service, told WFLA the carrier is doing nothing wrong. Rice said in a statement that “carriers are not required to deliver beyond the centralized units,” and if a package does not fit in the large parcel lockers outside the community, notices are left for residents.

Cox Media Group