I hate Drunk Punks!

[Charlesaf3]

A legal way to protect boxes you often see around here - put a 4x4 along side the mailbox, so that there's no clear shot at the box. Sometimes you see an entire "U" surrounding the box.

Takes the fun out of mailbox polo, and no stronger than any regular setup.

Though I really really like some of the killing the vandals cars ideas up there. Especially the filling the trash can with concrete. How about filling it with dirt to "store" the dirt for a project? Nice and soft, you weren't looking to do anything, but I'm imagining ramming 32 gallons of dirt would be hard on a vehicle.

 

[Champy]

We had similar problems when I was a kid back home. My Dad's solution was to mount the mailbox on its pole using a slightly larger stub collar attached to the bottom of the box...like a receiver. Then every night when he came home from work, instead of taking the mail out of the box, he simply lifted the box off the pole and set it on his car seat. Next morning he would set it back on the pole on his way out.

Seemed like a lot of hassle to me but he never minded doing it...kinda became a routine, and we never had anymore smashed boxes at night....later on he quit taking it in as the local kids eventually grew up.

 

[Wayne County Hose]

A couple of years ago, some kids were riding around wacking mail boxes with a bat. The kid with the bat was hanging out the window, the driver got too close to a tree. Yep, it happened. Sad, he didn't make it. This kid was a nephew of one of my high school friends. Nobody likes when their mail box gets wacked, and mine has, but this was horrible. We all know it was nobody's fault but their own, but no one likes to see this happen. He didn't deserve it.

 

[Z-Michigan]

You can just buy a heavy duty mail box at any of the big box stores. After having my regular duty box trashed several times in a couple of years, I spent a bit more for the heavy box at Lowes. I suppose it could be damaged by someone serious about the project, but it would ring your bell if you whacked it with a bat. I think it may have been hit by a beer bottle a few times, since I have found broken glass scattered around it, but it didn't even get scratched, much less dented. I mounted it on a single 4x4, but because it is basically in the ditch by the road, I eventually had to add another post due to the soft dirt. I didn't want to buy a 10 foot pole to go down deep enough, so I just put in another 4x4 and tied the two posts together. I don't think the extra post would cause all that much extra damage to a vehicle hitting it because the dirt it's in would probably let it fold, and the box itself meets codes, so I figure I'm about as safe from law suits as is possible in this insane world.

Chuck

This is about 99% of what we did. Same heavy duty, 20lb, made in China steel mailbox that meets USPS regs for rural routes. Mounted on a single 4x4 post, didn't need two in our soil. Only difference is that the box is mounted to one board that is mounted to another board (which sits on top of the post) using two heavy duty hinges. I figure a whack on the box itself will probably flip the box over without doing much damage. I was too innocent to realize some people simply drive into the posts. If that ever happens, we'll probably do the hanging-out swinging design described earlier. May also have to consider the built-up speedbump idea in our dirt road at the box.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

I didn't mean to start a war. I have had my mailbox damaged twice but not from being bashed. It was actually sideswiped. Glad nobody was hurt.

I am aware that being alive carries risk and some still believe in natural selection but.... the problem I have is that some of you act like you've never had a wheel off the edge of the road whilst driving. I got one thing to say while I put on my flame retardent suit. Lucky liars.

I do like the open can of aluminum paint idea. Best I've heard yet. Maybe it will splash the open container being consumed and the fella won't know what brand he's drinking.

Build what you want, just hope the person you love doesn't hit it.

 

[turbo36]

A couple of years ago, some kids were riding around wacking mail boxes with a bat. The kid with the bat was hanging out the window, the driver got too close to a tree. Yep, it happened. Sad, he didn't make it. This kid was a nephew of one of my high school friends. Nobody likes when their mail box gets wacked, and mine has, but this was horrible. We all know it was nobody's fault but their own, but no one likes to see this happen. He didn't deserve it.

That is sad, when I was a "young punk" a similar thing happened in my group of friends but fortunately my buddy lived through it without permanent damage. Any lesson without permanent damage is a good one, we never tried that again.

 

[john_bud]

Was watching the evening news. 2 more punks (long greasy hair and that stupid chin only beard that makes one look even more moronic and slack jawed) were arrested. They were setting off a home made bomb and it was so loud it got noticed. They also were smart enough to youtube post 2-3 prior bomb blasts, so there are multiple counts against them. While the stupid stuff on youtube mostly just seems to be self entries into the Darwin Awards, some is good for evidence in a court of law.

Down in LaCross, they are having some other punks blow up mail boxes. My kid gets the mail, that makes me angry. Why are mail boxes such a target? Don't they realize that it's a "pile on" crime where the local, state, federal and even the mail police line up for their turn to bend you over?

On a bright note, I saw a young kid I know (about 20) while at Walmart. He was with a buddy deciding to buy an oil filter and air filter or just oil filter. (I didn't ask why....) Anyway, both of them had on the large "bling" ear rings and the kid I know also had a new eyebrow metal post deal. They looked seriously like a couple of slack jaws. I only mention it as the one I know helped start a Young Republicans club at the high school to discuss conservative principles, self reliance and ownership of consequences. You can't tell just by looking....

 

[Soundguy]

Soundguy, sounds like you have seen the same seedier sides of life as have i.
Sorry, have to agree with you. Way too much has been taken away by others who feel it is their mission to protect everyone from themselves and others. Soon we can all live in little gerbil habitats safe and secure from all those nasty bugs that make us ill or kill us.

Ran across a warning sign: CAUTION THIS MACHINE DOES NOT HAVE A BRAIN
YOU WILL HAVE TO USE YOURS.

Turbo36 wants to live in the safe gerbil habitat it sounds like.

Just because a power pole has to carry a load and be beefy does not change the FACT that it is a large mostly imovable object that someone can run of fthe road and strike and likely get injured or killed on.... it's just a fact...

soundguy

 

[Soundguy]

While he may not have 'deserved' it.. he was solely responsible for it happening, unless someone forced him to hang out the car at gunpoint. Taking those dangerous actions increased his chance for a bad accident to occur.. nobodies fault but his own. Sad yes... but his fault.

soundguy

A couple of years ago, some kids were riding around wacking mail boxes with a bat. The kid with the bat was hanging out the window, the driver got too close to a tree. Yep, it happened. Sad, he didn't make it. This kid was a nephew of one of my high school friends. Nobody likes when their mail box gets wacked, and mine has, but this was horrible. We all know it was nobody's fault but their own, but no one likes to see this happen. He didn't deserve it.

 

[Soundguy]

There are more opportunities for death and destruction than we could record and write on this webpage... denoting a few doesn't change anything..

If my wife swerved to miss something in the road and opted to hit something in the median or swale, then I would ahve to assume she chose the lesser of the 2 dangers.. which is what i would choose. IE.. If I immediatly say a semi barreling down my lane and impact was iminent, and my only out was to the right swale, where a power pole happened to be.. you got it.. I'd be aiming to shear off a power pole.. 2 choices.. neither of them good.. oone worse than the other.. I'd probably make the same choice if it was a soft human being that jumped out in the road as well.. me strapped into my truck will have a better chance of living , hitting a power pole, than a soft pinky hitting the front of my truck going 55mph.

Lifes all about choices... you try to make the best ones you can. there is no guarantee that you will always have a 'good' choice as an option.. IE.. there isn't always an 'out' Sometimes you have a frying pan / fire situation.. you pays your money and you takes yer chances.. try to make the best choice.. then deal with the consequences.

next comes the issue of driver error, or mechanical failure.

If my wife just plain flubs up and spins out of control and shoots of fthe road and crashes into a house.. it will be a sad day... but I'm not going to sue the people that live on that street because their house was in the way ( borrowed that analogy from another poster ) lets face it.. it was an error .. it may or may not have been preventable under the circumstances.. however.. there is no re-wind button.. it happened.. got to deal with the consequences. Similar with mechanical failure.. except there may be some liability on the part of the manufacturer, IF that were the case.. " IF".

Callous? Naa.. I enjoy life.. I just don't stick my head in the sand to avoid seeing and realizing all the hardships and issues the world has.

Rarely has candy-coating the truth ever helped much. You can either choose to deal with life as it unfolds, or burry your head in the sand and then call everyone else callous... ( lots of other choices between those two I'm sure... ) I'm simply not afraid to call it as i see it. A person who does something irresponsible and then expires.. well.. it may be sad.. but who is really to blame.. The guy inthe dump truck stopped at the stop light.. or the person looking in their back seat that plowed into the back of the dump truck because they were not paying attention? Sad .. maybee.. but I don't see anything other than clear careless driving.. and lack of responsibility at work there... past that.. it's all physics and luck. We all know what high speed things do when they hit large mostly non moving things. Throw a little random vector in there, and you can have anything from scratches and bruises, traffic tickets and a tow truck.. to a herse... sorry you don't like that.. it's just the way this world happens to work. ( Maybee if you were in charge.. it would be all different?? let me know how that works out if it ever happens )

soundguy

I don't need to "wake up and read the paper" I'm aware of the world and the selfless thinking you are dealing out here. Why add to the opportunity for death and destruction on our highways? I guess if you wife swerves to avoid something in the road and impales herself on a overbuilt mailbox you would write it off as a deduction from the gene pool? Have you become so callous to life that a little empathy is no longer part of your thinking? How sad for you.