A Flint mail carrier was honored Thursday for chasing away a pit bull that was attacking a young girl along her mail route.
Rungphet Bodnar said police later told her: “‘You probably saved her life. At minimum you saved her arm.'”
Bodnar, 54, of Clio, Michigan, shared her story at the National Association of Letter Carriers’ annual Heroes of the Year ceremony Thursday in Washington, D.C. She was selected as the association’s hero for the Central Region.
At the event, Bodnar said she was approaching a bus stop at a corner along her route last April when she noticed several children there were unusually animated.
“I was like ‘Wow, they’re really excited because it’s a warm day today,'” she said. “Then I noticed, they were all screaming.”
Then she saw why. A pit bull was dragging a little girl by her leg across a yard.
Bodnar took action, first using her mail truck to block the other children from the animal, then running in to help, armed with a chemical spray used to deter dogs.
“I thought, ‘I hope I don’t get written up for this,’ because I didn’t have time to grab my satchel,” she said.
Another woman at the scene already was attempting to pull the girl from the dog’s grasp. Bodnar said it was as if the woman and the pit bull were “playing tug-of-war” with the child’s body. She got as close to the animal as possible — to avoid accidentally spraying the child and the woman — and sprayed the animal in the eyes.
The girl was briefly freed but “the dog snatched right back onto her leg. He shook off the spray like it was nothing,” she said.
Bodnar repeated the process several times but the animal continued to attack the child between hits of the spray. It wasn’t until Bodnar deployed a continuous stream of spray and chased the dog into a backyard that the badly injured girl could be whisked away to safety.
Bodnar retreated to her truck and, knowing that another busload of students would soon be stopping at the same location, called 911.
Police and animal control arrived and took over.
It was all in a day’s work for the letter carrier.
“I went about my route and finished my route,” Bodnar said.
An investigating officer called her the following day to thank her, and tell her the attack “was the worst mauling I had seen,” she said.
Bodnar said the child was hospitalized and, about a month later, returned to school.
The girl hasn’t forgotten the heroic act. “She comes and gives me hugs every time she sees the mail truck,” Bodnar said.
National Associated of Letter Carriers President Brian Renfroe said Bodnar’s actions are an example of the impact mail carriers can have in their communities.
“Often when something is wrong, something is out of the ordinary, even the smallest, little thing, we notice,” Renfroe said, “and that often puts us in a very unique position to help those that are in need.”
mreinhart@detroitnews.com
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