Someone breaking into rural mailboxes

[teejk]

It is NOT up to the carrier for the mailbox placement. It is up to the Postmaster or installation head, who is supposed to follow guidelines for the placement. The guidelines include many factors including line of travel, safety, and contractual obligations. Once it is placed, again it cannot be moved without the consent of the PM. If you would like your mailbox moved, make a written request to the PM, including specifics and reasons. You should expect to receive either or reply or an acknowledgement of your request within two weeks. On another note, theft from mailboxes is very prevalent throughout the nation. It is easy for the thieves and difficult for law enforcement to catch the perps. Here is just one article of some thieves that were actually caught.

Suspect in check thefts from mailboxes turns himself in | The Columbus Dispatch

Around here I doubt any exceptions would be granted...I built and planted a box for my MIL last year and the specs (height, distance from the roadway, even depth of the post and length of the cross-arm) were pretty specific. A few years ago we got threatened to lose our mail service because we didn't have the address on the mail-box (same as our fire number that is on a post 12 ft away... on a street that has 2 houses on it...we complied even though the temps were below zero and not sure how well the decals would hold up). In the meantime we still get a lot of the neighbor's mail...

 

[sixdogs]

I'm the OP on this and am on the lookout for a locking mailbox. Maybe like the one pictured here:

dVault Mail Protector Vault Locking Security Mailbox & Reviews | Wayfair

I am then going to stuff it into my regular double plastic mailbox that I now have. The door will open on the plastic one like always but then you will see the locking one. You just stuff the mail in and it works and will still look like the old one. I would really prefer to build one--and may--but this is my starting point. It's a project for the next few months.

EDIT...The above mentioned box is at Lowe's for under $100.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

After our road was last paved everyone had to raise their mailboxes. Even though they milled the road down before paving....

 

[sixdogs]

After our road was last paved everyone had to raise their mailboxes. Even though they milled the road down before paving....

We have a mailbox like this

Shop Step 2 MailMaster 12.5-in x 51-in Plastic Stone Gray Post Mount Mailbox at Lowes.com

except it's a double wide. I can raise or lower in a few minutes. It slides over a 4x4 post. Use security type bolts with special heads and the modern educated high school vandals are stumped trying to steal or damage.

 

[Fossil Farm]

I have purchased boxes from Mailboxes, heavy duty mailboxes, locking mailboxes, commercial mailboxes, CBU's, drop boxes, collection boxes, mail drops, Letter Locker, Fort Knox Mailboxes, Heavybilt, 4C Horizontals, in the past. They are expensive, but very well built. Not sure if their locking one would pass a thick medicine package into the protected area though. The box was fine even after a drunk hit it. Needed a new post of course. The drunk just kept going. Not sure how he explained the damage the next morning.

 

[joefromga]

A small town nearby has a box for water bill payments that opens up so you place your envelope but that closes the internal box so people can't steal stuff. Sorta like a post office blue mailbox but only maybe 2 cu ft square.
You have to have a key to access the stuff but it's big enough for a milk jug probably.

 

[drajj5]

Another option that you could do......

https://about.usps.com/forms/ps4232.pdf

Fill out the above form and check the box that says "do not deliver my parcels" - this keeps your parcels safe at the Post office and you will receive notice that your package has arrived at a secure location for Pick up.

Just another option for you to consider but could be inconvenient though.

 

[Jaeger]

I didn't like my mail being a 1/4 mile away from the house and outside the gate so I forked over a few hundred dollars and got a Ft Knox mailbox.

Cheap insurance and secure when you mount it to a 9' long 3/8" thick steel 6x6 with a few hundred pounds of concrete. Welded a 1/2 plate to the top of the post and drilled and tapped it to teh bolt pattern and bolted it with grade 8 bolts from the inside.

Now leave for a few days and no worry about mail it'll hold a weeks worth if needed.

I have the large Standard:

Fort Knox Mailbox - Our not so "Standard" mailboxes.

 

[sixdogs]

Jaeger...Wow, what a mailbox, and 68 or 96 lb versions? What's not to love about that?


EDIT--oops, just saw the $250 price. Still, it gets the job done and looks like it belongs..

 

[turnkey4099]

I didn't like my mail being a 1/4 mile away from the house and outside the gate so I forked over a few hundred dollars and got a Ft Knox mailbox.

Cheap insurance and secure when you mount it to a 9' long 3/8" thick steel 6x6 with a few hundred pounds of concrete. Welded a 1/2 plate to the top of the post and drilled and tapped it to teh bolt pattern and bolted it with grade 8 bolts from the inside.

Now leave for a few days and no worry about mail it'll hold a weeks worth if needed.

I have the large Standard:

Fort Knox Mailbox - Our not so "Standard" mailboxes.

Back when it was highly frowned upon, a couple gays rented a house in the country in white bread country. Mailboxes were being destroyed almost as soon as they were mounted. They built something similar to yours. Within the week it was on the ground in pieces from a cutting torch.

Harry K