Mailman credited with saving customer

NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) - A Norfolk mailman potentially saved the life of one of his customers Monday afternoon.

David Fields, Navy veteran and mailman, says one of his customers, a man in his 80s on Shaffer Street, steps outside every day to talk. On Monday, Fields noticed the man's mail was piling up, and he had not stepped outside to chat in a few days.

"The only thing I saw was a pile of mail," Fields said. "I'm looking in it and that was last week's mail."

Fields said he knocked on the door and no one answered, and the man's vehicle was in the driveway. Fields says he then asked neighbors to call 911.

"I was nervous and I was hoping and praying the whole time he was alive," neighbor Monicia Gainer said.

When rescue crews went into the home, they found the elderly man alive. He had fallen in his bedroom and couldn't move.

"Just knowing someone being on their floor for a week [without food and water] just blew my mind," Fields said.

WAVY News contacted the hospital where the man was admitted, and was told he will be okay.

"I don't feel that I was a hero," Fields said. "I just feel that I was in a particular place and time to help someone out in need."