Mail Box Destruction

[E/S]

This is what my neighbors did to slow down the problem on a main road. The boxes look to be made of 12ga steel.

E/S

 

[NewportNic]

Looks good to me but in many areas you cannot build such a substantial structure inside the road right of way.

 

[John White]

I have wondered why some co. doesnt make one built like a tire is built. With plies of cord or steel inside just like a tire. You can beat on a tire all day with a sledge hammer and not hurt it. You might knock it off the post but if built like a tire, I think it would be pretty well indestructible. I have seen a few people take a piece of 8' corgated black PVC pipe and put a end and door on it. That will take a pretty good whack too.

 

[2manyrocks]

Funny you bring that up. I was just thinking that if you put a tire or even part of a tire around the mail box, it'd be really hard to mess with short of running over it.

 

[Ken45101]

Funny you bring that up. I was just thinking that if you put a tire or even part of a tire around the mail box, it'd be really hard to mess with short of running over it.

I've had them do that too (run over the post, drag the whole thing down the road.

I've been told that it is illegal to build a post/mailbox that won't break. Seems the government favors the vandals and doesn't want them hurt and doesn't want us to spoil their idiotic fun.

I've been just buying very cheap mail boxes and holding them on with a bungee strap. At least it makes replacement easy. I keep a spare on hand.

Next time they bust off the post, I will replace it with a railroad tie. Maybe put some boulders around it. Or some big spikes I remember a traffic circle at work with 6" spikes protecting it. The grass was undamaged

Ken

 

[Diamondpilot]

My friends lived on a corner when I was in High School and someone keep hitting his trash cans every trash day by cutting though his yard. His dad got tired of it so he needed some river rock to do a landscape project so he sat the cans out and left the trash out but filled each 50 gallon can with about 12 bags of river rock he had bought.

About 6 am they heard a bang. He said they was tranny fluid, part of the grill, and all the coolant along with the cans and rocks dumped over. Never had a issue after that.

Chris

 

[RHughes]

I did the small MB inside a larger MB with concrete poured in between after my box got smashed about 4 times. A few months back some vandals cruised down our road and bashed *every* box with what looked like a steel pipe. It did manage to scuff the paint on mine /;->
My box was the envy of the neighborhood.

 

[nap61]

They got my mail box two weeks ago; second one in a year. It was a cheap plastic Lowes special. They didn't break the box itself, but tore it off the base that attached it to the post. I was able to buy a new base but like Ken, I just used cable tie raps to put it back on the post. When I replace it, it will be one that gives the next little Sh** a lasting memory.

Norm

 

[AlbertaDan]

If teh ysmash from the top you still sc%^&%^. But most don't stop to beat on the top. It's more of a drive by smash so they don't get caught. With the swing away your box will still get dented but at least it should still be functional. Better than having to always replace the whole set up. If you do like one other poster said and double line one box with another it wouls almost be indestructible.

 

[AlbertaDan]

My friends lived on a corner when I was in High School and someone keep hitting his trash cans every trash day by cutting though his yard. His dad got tired of it so he needed some river rock to do a landscape project so he sat the cans out and left the trash out but filled each 50 gallon can with about 12 bags of river rock he had bought.

About 6 am they heard a bang. He said they was tranny fluid, part of the grill, and all the coolant along with the cans and rocks dumped over. Never had a issue after that.

Chris

My parents had a similar issue. They lived on an outside corner lot and always had people driving over the edge of their lawn. Good old dad went out and placed big rocks all along the edge of the grass. One evening their was knock on the door. It seems some idiotic driver tried to cut the corner and asked why they put the rocks where they did.

My dad who has never been one to back down simply asked why the a**hole was driving over their lawn.

No answer, they simply grunted and left, mumbling something about making him pay. Only one question from the "condo assoc". Told dad to move the rocks. He said he would if the condo assoc agreed to pay for new sod to replace that damaged by people driving over it. No agreement was reached. That was in '86 rocks are still there and no tire tracks

 

[smiley]

I had this problem a few years ago. A metal T-post next to the mailbox fixed it. They are to lazy to get out of the car.

I did the same thing only used a highway sign post right in front of the flag and haven't had it hit in probably 5 years now. They usually did it from a car and if they do try it, at the very least their hands will be ringing and at best may bounce back and take out their rear window.

 

[Dataway]

Last time this happened to me it got complicated. I'm a welder/fabricator so I had a pretty sturdy box and post (post was two sections of 1.5" x 1/8 wall square tube welded together with cross bars). Graduation night two kids take their fathers new pickup out for some fun, ran over my mailbox...which destroyed the mailbox and post....but jammed under the truck causing them to continue into my large dry laid stone wall...which in turn destroyed the truck.
They managed to leave the scene in the limping truck I guess. I called the police etc., two days later they kids show up with their father after having gotten arrested for the damage they did to boxes prior to mine. They were handing out fresh 50's to compensate their victims. I had a talk with the kids, asked them if I had ever done anything to them, I was real straight up with them cause I did some stupid stuff when I was young too. At the end I told them and the father I didn't want any money, I could make another myself cheap enough...but to just remember the righteous way I treated them, and to try to treat others the same way. However the father insisted I take $150, I didn't want to take it because I knew it was HIS money, not THEIRS. But he continued to insist so I did.
I got the distinct impression that the lesson their father was teaching them was that money always make up for your irresponsibility. Maybe I was naive, but I wanted the kids to go away feeling like they had done a friend wrong, not that some money had made everything all better.
JohnnyB

 

[WayneB]

Maybe we all need one that we can lock & load! LOL

 

[smiley]

I got thinking about this subject and remembered an incident from the 70's. One of my neighbors in Fla saw kids smashing mailboxes on our dirt road, so jumped in his truck and started chasing them. What they didn't know was that the road went from dirt to cowpath about 1/2 mile further down. The road made almost a 90 degree turn through the roadbed of an abandoned RR right of way. Needless to say, they hit the bank and rolled it. No one was hurt but after the Sheriff got there, they wound up paying a bunch of money for mailboxes and a totaled truck.

 

[Ken45101]

I got thinking about this subject and remembered an incident from the 70's. One of my neighbors in Fla saw kids smashing mailboxes on our dirt road, so jumped in his truck and started chasing them. What they didn't know was that the road went from dirt to cowpath about 1/2 mile further down. The road made almost a 90 degree turn through the roadbed of an abandoned RR right of way. Needless to say, they hit the bank and rolled it. No one was hurt but after the Sheriff got there, they wound up paying a bunch of money for mailboxes and a totaled truck.

Well, that was back in the 70's. With "modern" attitudes, the kid's parents would probably sue your neighbor and win

Ken

 

[mjncad]

Is that Dirty Harry's mailbox?

Maybe we all need one that we can lock & load! LOL

 

[sixdogs]

I didn't read all ten pages here since my plastic mailbox seemed to deter the ruffians around here. Now they have taken to trying to pull the whole mailbox and post out of the ground. Beats me, maybe a snipe hunt.
But I got there first when I put the post in. I sank it four ft in the ground and bolted a piece of chain and rod to the end of it. I "belled" the bottom of the hole a bit so the chain had a place to sit and pack with dirt. I'd need a loader tractor to get it out.
I can see the aftermath of the occasional theft attempt and all they get is tired. And since the post I used was an old oily one, add dirty to the picture. Tired and dirty is not a good mix for today's kids.
Now I get left alone.

 

[2manyrocks]

What you need is a trained guard skunk.

 

[Ken45101]

What you need is a trained guard skunk.

Good idea! We will all send them to you for training! :laughing:

 

[Hooked_on_HP]

I've had them do that too (run over the post, drag the whole thing down the road.

I've been told that it is illegal to build a post/mailbox that won't break. Seems the government favors the vandals and doesn't want them hurt and doesn't want us to spoil their idiotic fun.

Ken

Ken its not the vandals they are trying to protect. I had the misfortune of being a passenger in a car that slid on a icy road and hit a mail box that didn't move. Some times innocent people accidentally hit mail boxes.
Bill