Mail Box Destruction

[alltoys]

Don't you wish you had put up a game camera for the pictures?

Interesting you post the game camera. I have one I have used for game only problem with them as the subject has be stopped for it to work properly. It senses movement then takes almost 2 seconds before it flashes. Subject, or in this case Vandal can be long gone.

I have thought about a security camera that registers movement and takes the video right away. Problem with this thought is no light at the box and an infrared camera only shines so far. There are cameras that can fit the bill but the cost is very high and for the zero investment of steel I may have it licked.

Mapmaker,
I like the idea of using a wheel rim. One can take it a little further by mounting the rim to a post with a spring so that when hit it will fall down and spring back. Like the old kids punching bag that won't stay down.

Mike,
I agree with proactive. I believe there was show sometime ago about a family that had a bunch of children that were stinkers causing trouble. Police were told, charges laid but problems actually escalated. Then the one person that had been focused on for vandalism did the same kind of damage to the guilty family's possessions. Hence no more problems.

My parents were pretty easy going. So long as no one got hurt or caused any damage have fun! I lived in a house with 4 boys, you can imagine the shinanigans boys can get into. If we did wrong we paid for it. I remember once I was 6 years old I took a small plastic football from the local grocery store. Mom found out what I had done she marched me down to the store by the ear made me come clean. All I had to do was sweep the floor for the owner for an entire weekend. The very same weekend my brothers got to go fishing with Dad. It was a double wammy but I learned my lesson. If I catch the little darling that likes to smash mail boxes I will be teaching him a lesson and it won't be sweeping out my shop!!!

 

[Mike Costello]

The beauty about being proactive is that the troublemakers aren't expecting you to be that way. They operate on a fear mentality that can easily be turned against them. If I busted a perp ripping me off I told him, "If this happens again, by ANYONE, I"m coming after you". It was amazing how fast the word got out and I was left alone.
Unfortunately, we live in a world that is getting more uncaring each day. However, it doesn't mean I have to put up with it and I won't. I win some and I lose some, but so far the tally sheet is in my favor. Mike.

 

[Ken45101]

The beauty about being proactive is that the troublemakers aren't expecting you to be that way. They operate on a fear mentality that can easily be turned against them. If I busted a perp ripping me off I told him, "If this happens again, by ANYONE, I"m coming after you". It was amazing how fast the word got out and I was left alone.

Some years ago, I said something to some kids that were causing problems. Their father showed up at my doorstep "HOW DARE YOU SAY ANYTHING TO MY KIDS!!!" No wonder the kids are troublemakers. With a parent like that, I expect the kids to have criminal records by now.

When I was a kid (back in the stone age), if a neighbor complained to my parents, I was in deep trouble. How times have changed (and we see the results, sigh).

Ken

 

[Cat_Driver]

I put in a three mail box set up with the "real" mail box in the center.

The two mail boxes LEFT and RIGHT of the real mail box are full of cement. I tipped the boxes on end and filled them with wet concrete before I installed them.

Stopped the problem of me losing mail boxes. I do see some wood splinters on the mail boxes to the left and right of the real box, but even the metal won't bend because it it solid cement.

It looks normal as you drive by and doesn't look like a bank vault.

 

[Gil Case]

There is, in fact, a mailbox court case that will make your blood boil. Guy fills between two mailboxes (little one inside a big one) with cement. Kid in front seat hits it with baseball bat, baseball bat breaks and kills kid in back seat of same car. Home owner found guilty.
What is this litigious world coming to.

 

[RadarTech]

in what seems like a long time ago in a small town deep in Georgia I helped my mom with a newspaper route...

We often saw crushed mailboxes and more...

when we had to do late night delivery-- wait err late night for a pre-teen in the early 80s... we got the crap scared out of us when this guy jumped up from the shrubs with a camera and snapped our pic as we dropped the newspaper in his box..

Mom did a swoop in, slow down and I slung the paper in the box...
when we stopped he told us he usually had his mailbox destroyed on the Friday after replacing the last one...

the following week in our very own paper, there it was a half page article on the camera man... He told the story of catching his newspaper carrier and then an hour later catching the boys that busted his mailbox..... I don't remember all the details just Mom and Dad laughing about it...

It would be funny to try and find that article...
and come to think about it.. I think he had a farm... wouldn't it be a small world if he was on TBN?


anyway, that's my old flashback...

J

 

[Pops15]

When I joined this site I didn't think I'd be reading about smashed mail boxes.
I LOL at the exploding box with the orange paint.
Where I live we have to have the break away post. Strange thing is we've built houses in some exclusive neighborhoods that require brick enclosures around the mail boxes.

Back in the 80's I was siding several buildings at the now defunct Fort Sheridan Army base. There was an old full size Chrysler parked near one of the barracks I was working on. The Chrysler's right front fender was all smashed in. Hand painted on the fender was "mail box hunter". The idiot would paint a small mail box and post on the fender in yellow, then paint a red circle around the mail box with a slash going through it when he'd hit another mail box. He was up to 17 yellow mail boxes with the red circles and slashes when we moved on to another building. I saw the Chrysler owner walking a week or so later so I asked where his car was. He said he totaled it.

 

[Ken45101]

There is, in fact, a mailbox court case that will make your blood boil. Guy fills between two mailboxes (little one inside a big one) with cement. Kid in front seat hits it with baseball bat, baseball bat breaks and kills kid in back seat of same car. Home owner found guilty.
What is this litigious world coming to.

Our legal system (?) is insane

I know there are often "hung juries", but I think that particular jury ought to be hung too....just in a different manner.

How was what the home owner did any different than putting up a mailbox of 1/4" steel?

What was he found guilty of? Common sense? Reasonably protecting his property?

<sigh>

Ken

 

[Pops15]

I'm really getting off topic but all these stories of dumb things kids do reminds me of what happened to someone I knew in high school.....
The main street through town was being widened. The area under construction was excavated at least a foot deeper than the road. This happened to be where an S curve is. Back then they didn't use orange barrels for construction barricades. They used fold up metal horses with flashing lights on them. The construction workers set them up too close together. Some kids found out that by knocking the first one down, they'd all get knocked down like dominos. They'd get knocked down every night. Sometimes 2 or 3 times a night. The police would call the contractor to come set them back up. He must have gotten tired of it because when the guy that went to my school tried to knock them down he broke his arm. The contractor had set the first barricade in concrete.

 

[LBrown59]

When I joined this site I didn't think I'd be reading about smashed mail boxes.
I LOL at the exploding box with the orange paint.
Where I live we have to have the break away post. Strange thing is we've built houses in some exclusive neighborhoods that require brick enclosures around the mail boxes.

Even when such enclosures were illegal ?

 

[RBD]

Living in Hardin County Texas, I lost two mailboxes to vandals. One was a normal, hardware store variety plastic box; no match for a baseball bat. Second was an "indestructible" 12 gauge from one of the catalogs. It worked fine, fending off at least one baseball bat I wish I could have video'ed but succumbed to a drunken driver who decided to flat out drive over it. Third one, still there, is an "indestructible 10 gauge steel box mounted on a 6x6 treated post set 4' into the ground with about 6 bags of concrete. I think there is one ding on it from a bat, but little damage otherwise (except for some algae.) Still waiting to see what takes it out.

 

[sal64]

that happens to us all the time kids with baseball bats find it funny build a solid wood skelleten around the mail box.

 

[Ken45101]

We have one neighbor who put up a heavy duty mailbox behind the guard rail. More difficult to get to Unfortunately for us, the nearest guardrail is 500' away and on the wrong side of the road.

 

[bcp]

I've noticed mailboxes located on a turnout space, to get the PO delivery car off the road, get hit less. The vandals can't drive by fast.

Bruce

 

[kenstrac]

About 10 years ago my neighbor who was police chief in our small town and had his own business, he worked all hours of the night lights were on all the time and the cruiser was only parked 20 ft from the mail box.One night it had been snowing about an hour and had seen some lights outside looking at the time he went out to get the newspaper usual delivery was 3-4 Am when he got out there his paper was there and so was a big dent on the mail box.He gets in the cruiser and follows the tracks comes up to the newspaper delivery guy and stops him to ask him if he had seen anything.The driver and his buddy were both drunk and there was a hammer on the seat, when they stopped to put the paper in the box they would hammer the mail box, Both were arrested and charged ,they nailed about 30 boxes in 2 towns that morning that they had to make restitution for, plus DWI and vandalism charges and loosing his job.The two idiots were in there 30's

 

[Pops15]

Even when such enclosures were illegal ?

Those brick and stone enclosures were required in the development's covenants. They are very common in many high end developments. My guess is the developer or maybe even municipality got a variance so they could require that type enclosure.

 

[alltoys]

Well another broken bat and video this time of the culprits.

Went out to the mail box last night seen wood splinters on my mail box and pieces of a bat scattered down the road. I collected my hidden video recorder and down loaded the evidence on my computer. Called the police they are coming out this morning to take my statement.

 

[mustangsallysdad]

Can someone tell me what the fascination is about destroying someones mail box?

Saturday morning I went out to front of my property to clean up around the entrance. On the way out I could see my mail box was not looking to good. I got closer then noticed it had been flattened by vandals. At least hit once from the side then smashed from the top, hit at least twice.

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!!!!

Around here it's pretty common practice to take a large parcel type mailbox and a medium size mailbox...center the smaller one inside the larger one and then fill the void between them with concrete...looks like a normal mailbox, but when hit with a baseball bat...ouch!

 

[AlbertaDan]

I know this is late but Lee Valley has a swing away brackey for mail boxes. If it does get hit then the bracket swings out of harme way. Great for those winter storms when the plow comes along and takes out your box. Its part number EH401 at Lee Valley Tools

 

[alltoys]

AlbertaDan,

What about when they smash from the top??