Mailboxes!

[gregintenn]

I live at the end of a dead end road in the middle of nowhere. Once every year or two, I find myself replacing my mailbox. What the hell is wrong with people??!!??? I'd sure like to rig this one with a grenade.

[Darrell]

As I was driving home yesterday I noticed that  my neighbor's mailbox has been demolished. Not just hit with a bat or something... crushed, with the support post torn down. I just don't see what anyone can gain from doing something like that.

Edited January 4 by Darrell

[BigK]

On my street it's common to see bricks scattered over a 30 foot area where some doofus hit a mailbox. I kid you not, we see one about every 3 or 4 weeks. In our case it's distracted drivers in broad daylight. It scares me that it could just as easily be a someone on the sidewalk being hit.

I knew idiots in HS that liked to go out drinking and "bash mailboxes". I was glad to know one broke his arm in the act.

[NoBanStan]

When i was a teen, we had a roving band of idiots who would steal mailboxes for fun. They would take them to the local abandoned quarry and chuck them into the water. They got caught fortunately, but it took the better part of a year and probably 15-20 mailboxes were taken. Unfortunately... they were all minors so the law didn't hit them that hard.

@gregintennit sounds like it's time for some concrete.

[bersaguy]

I don't know if these idiots that is destroying mail boxes but just so people know, It is a federal offense to damage a mail box. Back when I was in high school a couple guys got caught damaging some boxes by an off duty State trooper and he arrested them and the judge made their parents pay to have every one of the boxes replaced.

[gregintenn]

Way back in high school, a neighbor of mine got fed up with this. His solution was to make one in shop class out of 1/4” steel. I hauled it home for him. We had to unload it and set it in place with a tractor and front end loader. 
 

Thirty something years later, that box has many paint colors on it, but still stands.

 

I have considered doing something similar. I’d need to broke a post hole auger for the tractor. No way I’m hand digging a hole that deep!

[Luckyforward]

55 minutes ago, gregintenn said:

Way back in high school, a neighbor of mine got fed up with this. His solution was to make one in shop class out of 1/4” steel. I hauled it home for him. We had to unload it and set it in place with a tractor and front end loader. 
 

Thirty something years later, that box has many paint colors on it, but still stands.

 

I have considered doing something similar. I’d need to broke a post hole auger for the tractor. No way I’m hand digging a hole that deep!

I had a friend who kept losing mailboxes to bad drivers as he lived on a corner.  I helped him weld iron rods and some railroad iron which he covered with bricks.  The next car that hit it was totaled . . .

[MacGyver]

I think if I lived where you do and have the issue with vandalism - I’d invest my time and effort into making sure that there’s not a car or person that comes down that road that isn’t captured on video.

You’ll likely lose another mailbox in a year or two - but then you’ll have the data to solve the problem for lots of folks. 

[gregintenn]

26 minutes ago, MacGyver said:

I think if I lived where you do and have the issue with vandalism - I’d invest my time and effort into making sure that there’s not a car or person that comes down that road that isn’t captured on video.

You’ll likely lose another mailbox in a year or two - but then you’ll have the data to solve the problem for lots of folks. 

My neighbor would have video of it. Part of me thinks I'd be better off not knowing.

[Alleycat72]

Put a cell camera next to it. Find out who it is. Burn their car/truck to the ground around 1 month later. Keep your mouth shut about it. Enjoy your 5 year old mailbox 5 years later. 

[gregintenn]

4 minutes ago, Alleycat72 said:

Put a cell camera next to it. Find out who it is. Burn their car/truck to the ground around 1 month later. Keep your mouth shut about it. Enjoy your 5 year old mailbox 5 years later. 

Seems a bit harsh.

[tacops]

35 minutes ago, gregintenn said:

Seems a bit harsh.

Naw, he didn't say they were in the car/truck. Now that might be a little harsh.

[Alleycat72]

1 hour ago, gregintenn said:

Seems a bit harsh.

I didn't say the guy would have to be in the vehicle 

 

[Johnny Rotten]

1 hour ago, Alleycat72 said:

Put a cell camera next to it. Find out who it is. Burn their car/truck to the ground around 1 month later. Keep your mouth shut about it. Enjoy your 5 year old mailbox 5 years later. 

 

1 hour ago, gregintenn said:

Seems a bit harsh.

 

So doing a drive by is off the table

[Alleycat72]

They'd have to admit to multiple federal crimes to help the police find out who did it.

No down side.  Kinda like braking the arms of a pedophile. 

[Alleycat72]

5 minutes ago, Johnny Rotten said:

 

 

So doing a drive by is off the table

Engine block is always on the table.  LOL

[gregintenn]

Rough crowd!

[gregintenn]

I’m now gonna put in a LOT of effort to avoid running over mailboxes.

[Alleycat72]

2 minutes ago, gregintenn said:

Rough crowd!

In all fairness, you did bring up the grenade. I did something similar,  but it triggered a camera pre cell camera days. 

[Johnny Rotten]

1 hour ago, Alleycat72 said:

Engine block is always on the table.  LOL

I understand that reference, little heavy to work with.

I give you my version of Water Wings.

 

[Toy4Rick]

A few months ago, my wife got distracted by the dog, swerved to the right and clipped the mailbox

She stopped, got out, picked up a few pieces, got back in and drove off to the vet

Came home told me about "attacking" the mailbox and the car lost

I walked down the street and introduced myself, he told me he heard it happen, saw her picking up pieces then driving away, thought it was on him to fix his mailbox

With 2 sets of pliers, I was able to straighten it out so it worked again, he was happy, I was happy... sort of

New mirror for the Subaru Forester, nearly $300

[peejman]

When I was a kid, our subdivision had split roads with a median.  They tried to keep the medians pretty with various flowers and shrubs. A couple local nitwits kept driving through them at night.

Dad and a neighbor got annoyed and bought some 2" black iron pipe.  They stuck 4' lengths of it half in the ground inside a few of the bushes. A few nights later they heard some unfortunate noises.

The next morning they found fresh tire tracks in the median. They followed the trail of oil and coolant around the corner and called in the license plate number of the truck.  The judge sentenced the guys to community service, redoing all the landscaping in the medians. 

[Jeb48]

A friend of my Dad is/was a metal fabricator. He solved repeated mailbox problems by building one out of boiler plate that looked like a stock standard mailbox. welded it to a piece of 6" well casing cemented it deep in the ground after filled the pipe full of concrete.  In a week or so he found a broken baseball bat laying by his box and it hardly scuffed the paint.

I have been lucky with over 50 years of rural delivery in 3 location and near lost a mailbox to vandalism, once by snowplow.

[Patriotsson]

We lived in rural Indiana farm country.  When I was young seemed the high schoolers would run over mail boxes for fun. Farm trucks didn't care, any way my dad put a piece of railroad track 4 foot or so in the ground,  added a two x6 on each side.

Our mailbox never got run over, but did catch a farmers plow once. 

[pop pop]

I have lived in our house for 40 years now. We have lost several boxes, over a 4-year time period, but I guess the kids have moved on now. Been free from damage for 3 years now. Mailbox troubles is a pain, for sure.