Postal hero

GLASGOW December 15, 2008 11:38 am

— Glenn Janes doesn’t think of himself as a hero, but the people he’s helped might say otherwise.
Janes was among 26 Kentucky and Indiana postal workers who received the 2008 Heroes and Hardworkers award from the United States Postal Service Dec. 4 at the Kentucky Derby Museum in Louisville.
Janes, a mail carrier with the Glasgow Post Office, said that good friend and Brownsville Postmaster Sheri Stockdale nominated him for the award after hearing a story about how he saved a toddler in Glasgow.
“I was delivering on Happy Valley Road next Pizza Hut,” Janes said. “I looked over and a toddler, probably about 3 or 4 years old, was walking across the street by himself. Nobody was stopping and you know how busy it is right there. I jumped out the truck, stopped traffic and got him out of the street.”
Janes said he brought the child back, called the Glasgow Police Department and they started a search for the parents.
Guardians of the child were located at Taylor Auto Sales, down the road from Pizza Hut.
“That’s quite a distance for a toddler to be walking by himself,” Janes said. “I guess he just wandered off and they didn’t realize he was gone. I’ve got a 2-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl and if they’re gone five seconds, I worry. These days you just never can tell what might happen.”
Janes, who has served in the military and previously worked as an emergency management technician, said instances like that tend to follow him.
“Everywhere I go, something like that happens,” he said. “I was on my route one day and a school bus got hit, so I stopped for that. I got to Cave City that same morning and saw an accident and stopped for that, too. If I see a car wreck, I’ll stop and see if I can help anybody.”
Stockdale, who’s known Janes for about seven years, said that hearing stories like these doesn’t surprise her.
“I’ve known him to take his personal time to help people,” she said. “He’s just a heck of a guy. Glenn is a wonderful person, a hard worker and a good employee for the postal service. He’s a shining example for all of us.”
Janes said he just does what he thinks any good person should do.
“I’m not a hero, I just go about, doing my job,” he said. “I’d hope someone else would do it for me, too.”

Photos

Glenn Janes, right, and Sheri Stockdale, Brownsville postmaster, were in Louisville on Dec. 4 as Janes received a 2008 Heroes and Hard workers award from the U.S. Postal Service. Glasgow Daily Times