GREENFIELD, Ind. (WISH) – A central Indiana neighborhood that is on high alert after a series of dog attacks.
I-Team 8 first reported concerns in June when two dogs violently attacked a postman. Since then, at least three attacks have involved the dogs housed on Stevens Court. It is a small street that ends in a cul-de-sac in a neighborhood northeast of Greenfield-Central High School.
Two postal workers and more recently a 12-year-old boy were assaulted in broad daylight.
Amy Patterson and her 12-year-old son Tilman sat next to each other on the porch of their home in Greenfield as they talked about the experience. Amy said: “It could have been so much worse. We are really lucky.
Tilman has autism and hasn’t been far from his mother’s side since the dog’s attack late last week. Amy says her son was attacked while he was walking, and someone intervened and stopped the attack. The boy suffered a few bites on his knee and a new fear of most dogs.
Amy immediately knew where the dog lived.
“The police came out. The kids admitted the dog was out. We saw them go to the side and close the door. It had been left open,” Amy said.
In recent weeks, at least two postmen have been attacked on the same street.
The dogs suspected in the attacks have been removed from their homes.
The Greenfield/Hancock County Department of Animal Management the office provided photos of the dogs.
I-Team 8 learns that a third dog was in the house and that this animal is the one suspected of attacking Tilman.
Nate Luke lives next door and earlier this summer stepped in when the first postman came under attack. “So I opened the door and grabbed him by the collar. I pulled him inside and closed the door, then called an ambulance to make sure he was okay,” Luke said.
The second attack a few weeks later involved a female letter carrier.
Luke said: ‘And it happened right outside their yard. I did not witness this. I just pulled over as the ambulance, fire truck and paramedics were already there to attend to her. I didn’t come closer and took a good look, but I could see she had blood all over her.
Following the second attack, the two dogs believed to have participated in the attacks were taken to the Greenfield/Hancock County Animal Management Department. Someone later broke into that facility and took the dogs.
As the dogs were not found, the U.S. Postal Service suspended street mail delivery to front door boxes.
Amy and Luke each have children who are not allowed near the cul-de-sac.
Amy told I-Team 8 that the third dog in the house was quarantined for two weeks after Tilman’s attack. Since the attack, the 12-year-old boy has been afraid to leave the house,
“Even when we go for a walk and he hears a dog barking, he gets scared and comes up to me and I have to tell him, ‘It’s okay. They’re in the garden,'” Amy said.
Cnn All