A U.S. Postal Service clerk found herself behind bars after a confrontation that escalated at a Miami post office. Shintell Latoya Ford, 39, was arrested and charged with robbery by sudden snatching after she allegedly made contact with a customer's cellphone at the USPS Jose Marti station in Little Havana, as reported by Local 10 News.
The incident, which was caught on video on Dec. 9, began when customer Miguel Bravo noticed Ford's purportedly rude behavior towards a non-English-speaking woman; Bravo claimed Ford was discriminatory, and while he was recording her with his phone, she reached for it, causing a red bruise on his hand during the tussle and the phone ended up with another USPS employee who returned it. Bravo then recounted, “She ran into the back where I chased them and they were trying to break my phone because of the video that’s in it,” as per the arrest report obtained by Local 10 News.
On a separate account by NBC6, Bravo alleged that Ford had made racist remarks to another patron, claiming she stated, "English, I don’t speak Spanish. If you don’t speak English, out of here" and other derogatory comments. When Bravo confronted Ford and started recording, she reportedly expressed indifference to his actions, stating, "I don’t care what you do, sir. I don’t give a f---, two f---s. Now take that to the news, I don’t care." The footage further captured Ford smacking the phone from Bravo's hand.
Following the episode, police were summoned and Ford was detained; she later bonded out of jail, and her employment status remains unclear with USPS deferring to police for statements. Thus far, there has been no response from her at her Miami Gardens home as attempts to contact her were unfruitful. Bravo voiced his dismay at the ordeal saying, "To come to the post office and have to send in a mail and be subjected to hate and discrimination, no one deserves that," and noted that he was now wearing a brace on his injured hand. The Postal Service, at this time, has not provided a public statement regarding the situation or Ford's arrest.
