The Postal Inspection Service has released a documentary about the agency’s investigation into the tragic death of a USPS employee in 2019.
The 28-minute film, “Ambush in Andrews,” tells the story of Irene Pressley, an Andrews, SC, rural carrier who was shot and killed while delivering mail.
The Inspection Service’s investigation showed that a drug dealer killed Pressley to recover a package that contained 2 pounds of marijuana and that had been marked undeliverable.
“Protecting postal employees is our highest priority,” said Dan Mihalko, a retired postal inspector and the documentary’s director.
The documentary shows how postal inspectors used multiple tools and resources to get justice for Pressley, a beloved figure at the Andrews Post Office who was known as “Miss Irene.” Interviews with her co-workers are also included.
“An assault on a postal employee brings the whole postal family together — everyone in the Inspection Service and the Postal Service — in wanting to get those responsible. When it involves the murder of an employee, the Inspection Service puts everything we have into the investigation, and we don’t stop until we have the criminals in custody. And then, postal inspectors work tirelessly with prosecutors to get a conviction,” Mihalko said.
Mihalko and Jonathan Young, a video production specialist for the Inspection Service, worked together for two years on the film, which is the agency’s first in-house documentary.
“Ambush in Andrews” is available on YouTube and the Inspection Service’s website.
There’s nothing quite like a tragic murder of a postal employee to spark a self-congratulatory documentary from the Postal Inspection Service — as if doing the bare minimum of your job warrants applause.
Investigating the killing of a postal worker isn’t heroic. It’s the job. It’s what the public expects from a federal law-enforcement agency sworn to protect postal employees and the mail — not a PR opportunity to polish an image.
Every time tragedy strikes, we see the same pattern: a slick media statement and a few words about “justice.” But where was that same urgency before the violence happened? Where’s the accountability, the reflection, the humility?
Real integrity doesn’t need a documentary. It shows up every day — quietly, competently, and without fanfare.
The Postal Inspection Service is disgraceful.
Damage control disguised as storytelling.
A PR exercise built on the ashes of institutional failure. While inspectors chase headlines and camera time, letter carriers continue to be robbed, assaulted, and murdered in the line of duty. The Inspection Service shouldn’t be congratulating itself for cleaning up after a tragedy it created through neglect, mismanagement, and misplaced priorities.
Until USPS leadership confronts the abject failure of the Postal Inspection Service – the next “film” is already being written — one victim at a time.