UPS Driver Kicks Service Dog, Pushes Owner [Surveillance Video]

A UPS driver in California was caught on camera kicking a small therapy dog and pushing its owner, prompting the owner to wonder if the deliveryman might possibly be the one needing therapy.

The incident occurred outside a nursing home in Atascadero, where the owner, Tim Paulsen, had brought Patch the pooch, age 10, to cheer up Alzheimer’s patients.

The UPS driver was subject to unspecified discipline by his employer, according to a subsequent corporate statement.

In the security footage embedded below, the apparently friendly and playful white dog comes running up from behind the driver, who kicks the animal, and then scuffles with the owner.

Paulsen initially thought his dog might be dead in the encounter outside the senior center.

“The guy just came out of nowhere, like a tornado… honestly, I thought he’d killed the dog. When I saw him spin around like that, I thought, ‘Oh man, that’s it,'” he told KSBY, the NBC News affiliate in San Luis Obispo.

He immediately ran up to confront the employee of the worldwide package delivery firm, who then shoved him twice before the situation de-escalated.

Paulsen claimed that the UPS worker indicated that he had been attacked by a dog before, that he hates dogs, “and that he would kick me too.”

Fortunately, the little dog was uninjured in the altercation that occurred on May 28 but is just now surfacing on social media.

In the video, Paulsen appears to clench his fist when confronting the UPS driver, but he dismissed it merely as a non-threatening reaction to what had transpired.

“This assault was completely unprovoked. I nor my dogs did anything to deserve this attack. The driver threatened to kick me as I tried to calm the situation down,” the animal’s owner told ABC7 in Los Angeles.

Paulsen filed a battery complaint against the driver with the local police, and the incident is under investigation. Patch’s owner added that he is not calling for the UPS worker to be fired, but that it might be beneficial for UPS to “reevaluate this driver. He definitely needs some sort of therapy.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOXT-U0RbZ8

“UPS does not condone this driver’s behavior and took disciplinary action. We have contacted the customer and apologized,” a UPS corporate official stated in an email.

Under company policy, driver training includes exercising caution around dogs and that drivers should protect themselves if they feel threatened by a pet, however.

Watch a local news report about the incident involving a UPS driver who kicked a small dog named Patch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCV3oB8wur8

[image credit: William Grimes]