WICHITA, Kan. (AP) _ The U.S. Postal Service is refusing to deliver to 23 homes in Wichita because of a German shepherd that employees say attacked a carrier earlier this month.

But the problem is not that deliveries stopped. It's that residents never knew about it.

A supervisor for the Postal Service wrote a letter to residents explaining the problem. But when he tried to deliver the letter, he also was chased off by the dog.

Now residents have only a few days to purchase a post office box or move their own mailboxes to the street.

Some residents think the move is a ploy by the Postal Service to end home deliveries in the neighborhood. Officials say it is a matter of safety.

The Postal Service has suspended mail to seven neighborhoods in the past year because of dogs.