Eight of 10 people actually look at such mail, and a "large percentage" take advantage of coupons and discounts, said Sandy Cutts, the association's public affairs director.
And please don't call it "junk mail," Cutts said. "We don't use the 'J' word."
The Postal Service also did not look kindly on Padgett's failure to deliver the "standard mail," which accounts for half the volume of U.S. mail and a third of the service's revenue. "We don't consider it junk mail," spokesman David Partenheimer said -- just as newspapers don't consider the ads that flutter out of the daily paper to be junk, he added.
To those on his route, Padgett was the antithesis of the scheming, diabolical mailman, Newman, of "Seinfeld" TV fame. In one famous rant, Newman claimed that mailmen embarked on killing rampages because the relentless volume of mail drove them insane.
"Because the mail never stops," the character sputtered. "Every day it piles up more and more, but the more you get out, the more it keeps coming. . . . And then it's Publisher's Clearinghouse day."
Padgett, a grandfather of three, welcomed new residents to his route in burgeoning Apex, outside Raleigh, residents told the News & Observer. He doted on children. He gave treats to dogs and made sure packages were kept dry on porches.
Padgett was brought down by a utility worker who noticed bins stacked several feet high on the back porch of his home in Raleigh. Postal authorities found hundreds of thousands of pieces of undelivered advertising, but no first-class mail such as letters or bills.
"The work ethic that had served him so well . . . may have become his downfall," Andrew McCoppin, Padgett's lawyer, wrote to the court. "If his identity and self-concept was wrapped up in being the 'best mail carrier' for all of his customers and he could no longer succeed in that role, it would have been terribly difficult for him to admit that failing."
The lawyer added: "In a misdirected effort to continue the illusion of the perfect mailman, he covered up his failure in a manner which probably seemed, at the time, to cause the least harm."
In court this week, Padgett apologized to fellow postal carriers for bringing unwarranted scrutiny to their delivery efforts. He also thanked family members and customers along his route. Thirty-two people sent letters of support.
"It buoyed my spirits," the mailman said.
Though Padgett is now out of a job, News & Observer reader Bill Clark proposed a new line of work.
"I'm wondering if Padgett could get a job within the telephone routing network," Clark wrote, "and screen the many calls I also don't care to deal with."
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david.zucchino@latimes.com
