Vandals

[bulm540]

I was going to work this morning and noticed my mail box was destroyed. Some idiot hit it with a 2 x 4 and had the nerve the leave the 2 x4 in my yard. I hope the sucker broke his wrist. I just hate it when people cannot respect somebody else's property. There, I feel better now.

Edited March 14, 2006 by bulm540

[lynn jones]

i see it all the time. might want to have a brick mail box next time. the penalty is greater than 2 min.

lynn

[carinab]

My father in-law had an issue with local youths and his mail box. He installed a giant spring on the base of the pole. If you hit it, it would sway to and fro. Wish I could have seen the look on the guy's face when he took a whack at it and it whacked him back!

[Scooter]

I knew a guy who's parents had a problem with people destroying their mailbox. His dad was a contractor and got fed up. He buried a bunch of re-bars couple of feet into the ground and filled everything with concrete. One morning they woke up and found a bumper and a chain still attached to the mailbox.

[Paul B]

There is actually a company that makes vandal "proof" mail boxes. they are made of thick stainless steel (it's at least 1/4 inch thick). My brother was constantly having his mailbox vandalized and finally got one and mounted it on a 3" heavy stainless pipe in concrete. Now been 10 years without a scratch.

This mailbox is immune to baseball bats, 2 by 4's and M-80's set off inside it. If you drove into it there would be much more damage to the car than the box.

I used to live on a curve at just the right point to have the traffic hit my mailbox if they overshot the curve. I tried moving it, but they still hit it. I was afraid to put in something really heavy as I didn't want someone to really hurt themselves when they hit it so I just replaced it when it got knocked down - about once every 2 years.

[zhunter]

I at one time lived on the Water, and had a really cool Pelican mailbox that was a wood carving (yes, it was expensive). I had a similar thing happen, really pissed me off.

[Bruce]

Growing up, our closest neighbor (3/4 mile or so) got tired of rebuilding his mailbox. One winter he boxed in a big piece of I-beam with some wood to make it look breakable(?), and made a concreate mailbox that looked, when painted, just like a normal new, pretty box. Then, sank it all in about 3 feet of concrete.

There was a big scratch in the bright paint of the box, once. Then, never another ruined box on our whole stretch of road.

[Kimberkid]

A friend of mines father was a mailman for 30 years, the best solution he says he ever saw was to install a very cheap mailbox filled with cement on either side of your actual mailbox. After the first time he noticed this he got the story about how the kid down the street broke his arm.

[Bigbadaboom]

A friend of mines father was a mailman for 30 years, the best solution he says he ever saw was to install a very cheap mailbox filled with cement on either side of your actual mailbox. After the first time he noticed this he got the story about how the kid down the street broke his arm.

My Grandfather did that vary thing when there was a rash of "Box Batting" going on. He went out one morning and found an aluminum ball bat laying in the ditch bent to crap. He said that, after replacing 7 mail boxes, he just stood there and smiled thinking about the pain that whoever was holding that bat went through. I think his Mailman was the one who recommended it.

Edited March 14, 2006 by Bigbadaboom

[Intel6]

Had a friend whos dad was having problems with getting his mail box smashed all the time from the same local kids. He finally went and bent the mail box back into some sort of shape and welded a thick steel insert box to put inside the old smashed box. When the kids decided they were going to come back and finish off the box with an M-80 they got a big suprise. The blast was directed across the street and took out the windows in the house across the street and they got in big trouble with the cops. When he told me the story I went out to look at the box and the old smashed outter box was still there along with the internal box.

Growing up out in the country and living on an isolated road we always had our mailbox attacked at specific times like Halloween night. The solution was to take a 5 gallon bucket and put a large diameter pipe in it and fill it up with cement as a base. On the bottom of the mailbox mount a smaller diameter pipe that fits into the pipe int he base. When Halloween, graduation, etc... rolls around all we did was pull the box out of the base and hide it in the bushes at the end of the driveway. The next day you just grabbed it and stuck it back into the base.

Neal in AZ

Edited March 14, 2006 by Intel6

[tightloop]

Get you a vandal proof box, expensive but worth it..

[Nolan]

When Halloween, graduation, etc... rolls around all we did was pull the box out of the base and hide it in the bushes at the end of the driveway. The next day you just grabbed it and stuck it back into the base.

Neal in AZ

You can always go one step further. Put a second base about 2 feet back of the first base. Pull the Mailbox out of the first base and insert in the second base. Fill original base with fresh manure and lay a sheet of brown butcher paper over the top, dust lightly with sand and dirt to hold it in place. Oh yeah don't forget to put it back in the original base the next day before the Mailman arrives...unless you don't like your Mailman.

Nolan

[tightloop]

Nolan

I don';t think they got out of the car to destroy it..in my day is was with a baseball bat as you drove next to it...

[JD45]

Old man Timms, the retired man that lived across the woods from us in the 1970's, entertained the whole community with his solution.

He could be seen walking down his driveway early every morning except Sunday, mailbox under arm. The mailman would come shortly, and he would fetch his mail and mailbox, and take them back in the house.

[blackdragon]

I like the let the mail box lie, Where it died program!!!! Did that and boy I was popular! With the postal service!

Ivan

[Nolan]

Nolan

I don';t think they got out of the car to destroy it..in my day is was with a baseball bat as you drove next to it...

Yup! When the front wheel drops in the manure filled hole the Asshat leaning out the window is going to get a shjt shower!

Nolan

[dajarrel]

I like the let the mail box lie, Where it died program!!!! Did that and boy I was popular! With the postal service!

Ivan

Group of vandals came down our road and busted every mailbox with a pipe or baseball bat. About half of us left the battered boxes in place, just bent the doors around where they semi-close and keep the rain out. That was two years ago. Box still holds mail just fine.

dj

[Nolan]

Another thought would be the 3 mailbox sandwich with a twist. The end mailboxes would be one piece (non-opening) thin breakable plastic and filled with gooey smelly vile nasty quick drying enamel paint. When the vandals drive by smashing the end mailbox with a baseball bat the surprise filling would spray all over the vandal. Sorta like the dye bombs banks use. The car would be pretty easy to identify as would the vandal.

Nolan

[shred]

Nolan's making me want to go put a mailbox in front of my house..

and a motion-activated camera

Silver nitrate is most excellent for marking miscreants.

[Bigbadaboom]

Another thought would be the 3 mailbox sandwich with a twist. The end mailboxes would be one piece (non-opening) thin breakable plastic and filled with gooey smelly vile nasty quick drying enamel paint. When the vandals drive by smashing the end mailbox with a baseball bat the surprise filling would spray all over the vandal. Sorta like the dye bombs banks use. The car would be pretty easy to identify as would the vandal.

Nolan

I like it.

[AZ38super]

Kids think it's cool to drive by and give-em a whack.

What they don't realize it is a Federal offense with a $500 fine per mailbox if they get caught. And they don't get off with slap on the wrist.

[tomfturner]

Best solution that I've seen is a 4" steel pipe for a post with a coil spring from a 1ton mounted at it's base sunk into concrete. On the top was a 6" piece of pipe with the "outer shell" of a cheap mail box put around it. If you hit it with a car it would allow it to bow out of the way, but if you hit it with a bat ... it hit back hard. If you just "plowed" into it ... it would beat the crap out of your car. Not many people even tried that box, those that did ... didn't try it twice.

[blackdragon]

Ivan

[Intel6]

Nolan

I don';t think they got out of the car to destroy it..in my day is was with a baseball bat as you drove next to it...

You were right on Tightloop. I lived on a country road, long and straight with no real lights anywhere. Typically they would attack the box in a drive by.

Neal in AZ