How to catch a vandal??

[zzvyb6]

A dozen years ago or so, we had a rash of mailbox smashers in the area around me. I got hit once and straightened the large sized tin box out. Then I placed a gallon can of John Deere green paint in there on its size lid out, and barely sealed. After round 2, I drove to the local high school and sure enough there was an S-10 pickup parked there with John Deere green paint in the wheel well and in the tire treads.

I had some sticky paper (8.5 x 11) with me and left a stamp on the windshield printed side inward and completely covered by the sticky packaging sheet. I would guess it would take the kid a good hour to scrape it off.

I still have his wiper blade in the garage. I straightened the box out again and painted it John Deere green. Never a problem ever again.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

I bought a plastic mailbox. It was bashed a couple times, with nothing more that some scars for their trouble.

 

[coobie]

There's been an ongoing issue here with someone driving around and smashing mailboxes. Just put the 2nd new one in the past two weeks and that was smashed last night. The box is quite a distance away and not visible from the house. I'd like to install some kind of security camera in an attempt to identify the SOB. I do have a game camera but I don't think that would work given it's motion activated and the vehicle would probably be past the box by the time it came on. (?)

Any ideas as to what kind of system might be more effective? No power anywhere near the mailbox either.

I have deer cameras set up.We use browning strike force purchased from Game & Trail Camera Reviews - Trail Cam Buying Guides-Trailcampro.com

 

[Kentuckyfarmer]

I had several mailboxes smashed by ignorant kids and then built one out of 3/8 in steel and set on a 3 in pipe. The baseball bat was laying a couple feet from the mailbox broke all to ???? The next time. But after a couple weeks the whole mailbox and pipe was missing. Found it across the street a hundred or so feet down the road in the ditch. Put it back up and a week or so later was missing again. That time was a half a mile away on another road in the ditch. I concreted it in that time but they still hammered at it for a couple years. Small repairs like fixing the door or ripped the flag off. I also had the plastic kind that you attach to a 4x4 post and they beat on it and couldn't tear it up enough so one night cops woke me up and said you know your mailbox is on fire. Fire department was out there spraying the grass down in the ditch, was about a half acre that burned and the mailbox was just a glob of crap. That was at a different place I owned from the steel mailbox. After they burned the mailbox I went to my local post office and got a PO Box. Told the postmaster now if they want to tear up or burn my mail box it will probably end up being the whole post office. Then I believe who ever did that would probably be caught some how.

I live on a dead end road now and there isn't much traffic and so far (knock on wood) this area hasn't had that kind of problem.

 

[rustyshakelford]

I had several mailboxes smashed by ignorant kids and then built one out of 3/8 in steel and set on a 3 in pipe. The baseball bat was laying a couple feet from the mailbox broke all to ???? The next time. But after a couple weeks the whole mailbox and pipe was missing. Found it across the street a hundred or so feet down the road in the ditch. Put it back up and a week or so later was missing again. That time was a half a mile away on another road in the ditch. I concreted it in that time but they still hammered at it for a couple years. Small repairs like fixing the door or ripped the flag off. I also had the plastic kind that you attach to a 4x4 post and they beat on it and couldn't tear it up enough so one night cops woke me up and said you know your mailbox is on fire. Fire department was out there spraying the grass down in the ditch, was about a half acre that burned and the mailbox was just a glob of crap. That was at a different place I owned from the steel mailbox. After they burned the mailbox I went to my local post office and got a PO Box. Told the postmaster now if they want to tear up or burn my mail box it will probably end up being the whole post office. Then I believe who ever did that would probably be caught some how.

I live on a dead end road now and there isn't much traffic and so far (knock on wood) this area hasn't had that kind of problem.

You need to start getting your mail ladies something for Christmas man! They had it out for you, do you make them deliver heavy stuff all the time?

Brett

 

[Industrial Toys]

How about Radar? If it sees a vehicle approaching faster than one would if you were stopping, it backs off out of baseball bat range. That and a halon system.

When I moved in here in the winter decades ago, it was winter and I had to erect a temporary mailbox. It was a flashing barricade stand with a gutted Motorola Base station on top. There was a spree of mailbox bashings but mine was missing. The cops found it in the graveyard, which was quite funny actually.

The kids were caught and had to pay for damages. I felt bad because they bought me a new mailbox although mine really wasn't damaged. I still have it. Painted many times over.

You have to be pretty close to the box to hit it from a pickup bed. How about a speed bump just out from the mailbox? It shouldn't interfere with accessing the box.

 

[Kentuckyfarmer]

You need to start getting your mail ladies something for Christmas man! They had it out for you, do you make them deliver heavy stuff all the time?

Brett

It's all good so far where I am now but when I had the problem with the kids and the steel mailbox i was lots younger and me and my brother waited up many nights in the car waiting for the idiots. I had a bat too and I wouldn't have beat on their mailbox. What I was planning on beating would have been a lot softer. But as you would know the nights we stayed up they never came. At one time there was 28 mailboxes beat up on the 5 mile stretch of road I was on. It was the days before cell phones and game cameras and all the gadgets there is now.

 

[Bird]

I guess this will always be a problem. I can remember when it was a problem in north Dallas when I was a young police officer more than 50 years ago. Sometimes it was kids hitting the boxes with baseball bats and sometimes it was kids blowing up mailboxes with homemade bombs.

 

[Thomas]

If there minds are made up to get your mailbox they will.
Are you the only one on the road having mailbox problems,if not talk to others and PD have the word put out and reward.

 

[mark02tj]

Loved the paint inside the mailbox idea!! :thumbsup:


My next door neighbor's mailbox is bashed all to crap! No door on it even. I'm surprised the mailman even leaves anything in it.


Thankfully in the country, it's mailboxes that get smashed. While annoying and destructive, still a relatively easy fix. When I lived in the city (houses 10 feet apart, on street parking), there were a couple of times where kids went up and down the street smashing sideview mirrors off cars. If you figure on $300-500 per car to fix an integrated side view mirror, it doesn't take many cars to rack up many thousands of dollars of damages. I was lucky one time when I was parked on the street instead of my alley-access garage. I could parallel park my Ranger to where it was hugging the curb. My next door neighbor had a big conversion van and it was angled along the curb behind my Ranger. They got his van mirror, but my Ranger was in a "pocket" that they couldn't reach without swerving too much so they missed it. Car parked in front of me got it.