Mail Box Destruction

[Scooby074]

alltoys: At least you still have mail delivery to your driveway..... Just wait till they make you goto get your mail at one of those "Super Mailboxes" like they've done here.

Canada Post wants all mail delivered to Super mailboxes. They say its safer for the drivers, but im sure its faster and more importantly cheaper for CanPost. I hate it.

 

[TTTTTT]

I know it would be extremely inconvienient to have it located in your nearest town for some, but with your own post office box you can eliminate the possibility of identity theft. This is one of the main ways this can happen. Bills, especially CC and government related with your ID on it are stolen an after that it can be very easy for a pro to assume you and milk you for a lot.

Just another angle on the whole mailbox issue and you would't have to worry about it getting hit.

Dave

 

[forgeblast]

I go with the "take pitty on me" mailbox. My mail box was hit and kicked off the post and the post was also cracked. So i zip tied the mailbox back on, and put some deck screws in the post to have it stand up and wouldnt you know it is never destroyed anymore. My neighbor puts out a new one every so often and its smashed flat. I think that when they see mine they dont see a challenge so it avoided.

 

[Dave5264]

2 years ago, up at our cottage, Victoria Day Weekend (May 2-4), I went down to the mail box on the Saturday morning to find it flattented (it had been fine wehn we arrived friday night).

The driveway is about 500ft long, so the mailbox is out of sight from the House.

I bent it back to shape on Saturday mornig, but found it bent again on Sunday Morning.---- Game on!

Sunday Night, 11pm I parked my truck in the bushes at the bottom of the Driveway, digital camer in hand. 2 way walki talki to the wife back at the house (this is exciting stuff -- she thought i was nuts). I sat there for over an hour, then a car slowed down and was about to stop at the mail box.

All i had to do was take one "Flash" picture and trun on the lights on the truck. The car was gone in a heart beat & a spray of gravel.....no more mailbox vandalism.

 

[LBrown59]

I go with the "take pitty on me" mailbox. My mail box was hit and kicked off the post and the post was also cracked. So i zip tied the mailbox back on, and put some deck screws in the post to have it stand up and wouldnt you know it is never destroyed anymore. My neighbor puts out a new one every so often and its smashed flat.
*I think that when they see mine they dont see a challenge so they avoided it.

That's rite their target is the nice shiny new box.
Who wants to bash up and old dilapidated one.
I put up a new Mail Box about 10 years ago but I didn't throw the old one away but instead installed the old box rite beside the new one on the same post.
This did 2 things: Blocked the view of the new box when coming up the road and drew attention away from the new Mail Box.
Works great : Not only has the new Box been left alone the Vandals haven't bothered the old junk mail box either.

 

[blueriver]

LB says "Blocked the view of the new box when coming up the road"

LB .... the road is a one way???

 

[ehchvac]

Well casing and truck coil springs, make a mailbox thats hard to beat.

 

[BearKiller]

Living in very rural Kentucky, where rednecks reign supreme, mailbox bashings are a nightly thing.

Being the meth capitol of the world, having your mail "checked" by someone other than yourself is also all too common.

Those two reasons are why I go to the expense and trouble of having a P.O.Box at the post-office in town.

It is aggravating to drive the extra distance every two or three days, to find nothing at all in the box, but it is far better than constantly repairing/replacing mail-boxes and always wondering where the birthday-card with cash in it actually ended up.

Even though they never seem to actually try to catch and prosecute the ones doing the bashing, they are real quick to put a little notice in the bashed box that your delivery will be suspended if you don't repair the box.

 

[LBrown59]

LB says "Blocked the view of the new box when coming up the road"

LB .... the road is a one way???

Mail boxes generally get attacked from vandals in vehicles.
The vehicles and mailboxes are on the same side of the road therefor there is no need to make them (Mail BOX) less visible to the traffic on the other side of the road going the other way.
If you're still concerned about that all you have to do is put up another Dummy/Decoy mail box on the other side of the real one.

 

[The Haymaker]

Being a welder by trade I had some 1/4 inch plate laying around so I made up a new box and welded it to the now metal pipe I cemented in the ground. I would dearly love to see their faces when they take a mighty swing at this new mail box!!!!

Have fun paying the lawyer fees when some kids mother sues you for breaking the little turds arm!

 

[JIGBUILDER]

My last mailbox was bashed when school started this year (again). I always call my sherriff's office and tell them to just log it. This time they insisted a deputy come by for a look and a talk. I'm a mile from a tri county area and 90 percent in the area mailboxes in all three counties have been hit within a 3 square mile area. The three counties were comparing notes. Seems as though we have two families of teens in seperat counties but only a mile apart, that are known to all three counties sherriff offices. One families teen (a 23 year old .. LOL) is doing time for his part in vandalizing (busting head stones) a local cemetary two years ago.

Deputies from all three counties are taking turns patroling a three square mile area watching for these individules cars 24/7. They have confiscated baseball bats and 1" iron pipes with rubber handles taped to one end. My light gage steel box was bashed by a 1" pipe.

I drove a couple of steel T posts beside the box so we'll see if that slows them down.

 

[carpenter383]

Ok I have an idea, wrap your mailbox with rubber (preferably filled with air like a tire) This would do wonders for you, by removing the damage from your mailbox to the immature vandal's parents' car. LMAO!

 

[neon_c2]

I hit a neighbor box's one night with my truck on a gravel road one night after work after putting in 70hours work week. I fell asleep at the wheel. I pick up everything and set it in the yard it was 3am. It was a old rusty mail box's on a rotten fence post. I was feeling guilty, ashamed and embarrassed about it. So I went and got a new mailbox and a post the neighbor live a mile down the road. I drove by and just set it in the yard and drove off. A few days later the neighbor put the new one up. I never told him I hit it. Not sure it was the right thing to do? But they got a new one out of it anyway.

 

[alltoys]

Have fun paying the lawyer fees when some kids mother sues you for breaking the little turds arm!

Yep, they can sue me and the little turd with the cast on his arm will have a lasting memory as to how he got it. Somethings in life are worth paying for!!

 

[larryccf]

had mine hit 3 - 4 times in 3 years

fabbed a heavy duty version from 1/4" steel, cut the front plate so it would accept a standard cheap mailbox door
then made the post in two sections - section anchored in the ground in concrete is a 2" steel rod, cut the end at a 15 degree angle so the lowest side was to the street

the rod from other side of that 15 degree cut, i bored the 4X4 post to accept it, and bonded it in with the lowest side of the cut, again to the street side, leaving about 2" sticking out the end of the 4X4. Welded a 6-7" steel sleeve onto the 2" section sticking out - i put a little grease on both cut ends of the rod

idea is, it will take a hit from a bat or 2X4, and swing away - then gravity will bring it back around

my mail lady still chuckles at it - you can push it around and it swings back on it's own

since doing that back in mid 90s, haven't had to replace it

 

[neon_c2]

I live on a old blacktop road off a gravel road tee intersection in the county for three years. I got a list of things that happen to mine.
Snow plow and road grader hit it about 6 time
two cars hit it
I hit it clearing snow with the loader on the tractor

So after being hit so many times I look around and found this The Mailswing. I call the 1-800-dig number got the utility mark. I move the box's about 15 feet away from the corner of the intersection from where it was and dug two hole 3 feet deep. I set it back in the ditch about four feet from where it was and add gravel. I put a pipe in the hole with some bracing and concert. I made a pole like this pics. But I made it to adjustment the pipe so I can pull way off the road with the truck in the summer and it the winter when the snow fills the ditch I can adjust the pipe and pull the box closer to the road. I just got a cheap box's on it for a bit. It took a week and someone hit it with a car. The pole work good but the cheap box's and the wood broad I mount it on came off the pole and bent the box. I got the welder out again using 1/8 plate and 1/8 thick by 14" round pipe I cut the pipe in half and used it for the top and welded plate on the side, back, bottom and made a door. I set the door about 3/4" back in side so the handle didn't stick out. I ok it with the Post Master before I build it first. It's been up now for four mouths. I'll try to get a few pics of it post.

 

[BearKiller]

Around here, they really like to bash the ones that look like a John Deere or I-H tractor, plus those that look like a locomotive, or anything just a little nicer than the rest.

They also like those that look like a neat red barn and silo, or a log-cabin.

Boxes like those don't last through the first week.


There is a big welding/fabricating company in town, owned by the wealthiest individual around.

He got tired of his plain old box getting clubbed, so he had his crew build one of 1/2" steel plate that was exactly the same shape as the regular one, even used the door and flag from the regular one.


Another guy rigged his to explode and blow flourescent orange paint all over; in less than three nights, it got exploded and a nearly pristine 1968 SS Camaro was quite noticable for several weeks.

 

[Sackett2]

I hit a neighbor box's one night with my truck on a gravel road one night after work after putting in 70hours work week. I fell asleep at the wheel. I pick up everything and set it in the yard it was 3am. It was a old rusty mail box's on a rotten fence post. I was feeling guilty, ashamed and embarrassed about it. So I went and got a new mailbox and a post the neighbor live a mile down the road. I drove by and just set it in the yard and drove off. A few days later the neighbor put the new one up. I never told him I hit it. Not sure it was the right thing to do? But they got a new one out of it anyway.

It was the right thing to do: But you shouldn't have hid with the new parts. I would have handed the stuff to the person, and offered to help him put it up. Nothing embarrassing in doing right. You would have made a new friend....



Also, anyone looked at the Fort Knox Mailbox - The Leader in High Security Mailboxes! mailboxes? Stout and postmaster approved

 

[bcp]

That's rite their target is the nice shiny new box.
Who wants to bash up and old dilapidated one.

I used some rust colored primer, a few mild dents, and some random black on a new mail box after the old one got bashed. Looked really old. It never got hit. It got stolen.

Bruce

 

[mjncad]

"Cluster" mailboxes are not immune to vandalism either. I was talking with my future neighbor at our property east of Denver and he told me vandals destroyed a cluster mailbox in the next neighborhood over.

There are nine 35-acre lots on the street where our property is, and they are served by a cluster mailbox. It will be about a 1.5-mile round trip just to get the mail from a tiny slot door barely tall enough for an average person's hand to fit in.

Oh well, it could be worse.