I hate Drunk Punks!

[john_bud]

Friday night / Saturday morning, probably after bar closing some fool drunk punks decided to steal a 50 gal roll to the curb trash can and fling it at my mail box. Snapped the post in 1/2. They stopped and took the mangled mail box, probably for a souvenir. All I found was the trash can, it's lid 50' away, some empty beer cans and tire tracks telling the tail. My assumptions are that 2+ drunk punks in a pick up truck stole the trash can and then one of them used it for "bowling" with my MB as the pin! Grrrrrr

Had to pull out the Kaw Mule, Kubota, Lawn mower and ford TLB to get access to the post hole digger. Then remove the box blade and swap. Spent the day diddling around getting the new box and post and mounting hardware, assembling, digging out the old post, digging the hole for the new one, etc etc.

I did call the cops and have a record of the incident so if there is any one caught, maybe I can drag their sorry butts into court and reclaim some of my grief.

I also managed to snap off one of the bolts holding a tooth on the auger bit. Found the bit in the hole and the nut / washer on the auger flute. Nothing like finding old bricks, rocks and stuff right at the edge of the road! Oh, and now my lawn has ruts from running the equipment across it while it is soft as butter. Grrrrr.

Drunk Punks .... grrrr.


Anyone have any suggestions on how to catch them in the act? (cheaply)

Thanks,
jb

 

[AchingBack]

To fix lawn ruts, insert a spading, or pitch fork and work your way along the edge of the ruts on both sides. You push down, and pry up toward the middle. This will create what looks like a large mole run. After that, gently press the outside edge toward the center of the rut with your foot, or use a light lawn roller if you have one. Many people make the mistake of filling ruts with soil. The original dirt is still there, it has just been displaced. I hope I was clear on the procedure, it really works well

 

[3RRL]

Sorry to hear that John. Don't you just HATE THAT!
I've had vandals inflict some mental pain too. This is at my city home. They have a habit of running over my trash cans when I put them out for trash day. They hit them with their car or truck and splash them all over my yard. Then I get to pick it all up the next morning before the trash dudes get there at 7:00am. Lucky the barrels are provided by the city and are injection molded, so they are pretty tough.
Makes me wonder if it's not payback for some of the shenanigans I used to pull when I was a kid.
Now I'm sorry for it.

 

[CurlyDave]

Anyone have any suggestions on how to catch them in the act? (cheaply)


Game camera. But the problem is you will probably have to set it up to take a picture of every car that goes by. You might have a lot of pictures to look at every week.

Now, I live about 1.5 miles up a dead end road (it branches but has no outlet) at the end of a branch. I could take a picture of every car that went by and it would be zero for the week, every car that went up my driveway might be me 20 times and someone else once or twice.

OTOH, so far there is no problem, so the expense isn't worth it.

 

[EdC]

Sorry to hear you had to deal with that. I helped a friend with the same problem; somebody taking out his mailbox only this time with a baseball bat. We embedded a regular size mail box inside of a large rural size mailbox with wire reinforced concrete surrounding the smaller mail box. The we filled the six inch pipe the mail box was on with concrete. The mailbox was so heavy we had to use his FEL to lift it onto the post. Worked really well . He used a game camera to take pictures of the idiots that were tying to beat up a metal covered hunk of concrete.

 

[PA hayseed]

Sorry to hear that John. Don't you just HATE THAT!
I've had vandals inflict some mental pain too. This is at my city home. They have a habit of running over my trash cans when I put them out for trash day. They hit them with their car or truck and splash them all over my yard. Then I get to pick it all up the next morning before the trash dudes get there at 7:00am. Lucky the barrels are provided by the city and are injection molded, so they are pretty tough.
Makes me wonder if it's not payback for some of the shenanigans I used to pull when I was a kid.
Now I'm sorry for it.

If they hit you more than once, they will be back again, and most likely they are local. Try a little trick, use your tractor to move a cement filled trash can to the curb. They will only hit it once. Same thing for mailboxes. Put in a big ol round cement post with rebar, and watch the damage it causes their cars. You could also put one of the gigantic round cement flower pots out there like they use to keep cars off sidewalks.

 

[EdKing]

I had someone (kids,drunks?) smash my mailbox a few years back, and I said the heck with it, it ain't gonna happen again. I set a piece of telephone pole (about 10"diameter) to mount my "new improved" mail box on. I took a small size rural style mailbox and inserted it in a large size one and filled the gap between them with concrete. I haven't had any mailbox problems since.

 

[RonMar]

Steel and concrete do wonders for driveby buttheads. My FIL had the same issue with trashcans in the back alley. He sunk a concrete filled steel post and set the cans close alongside the post. The cans were only hit once more, and the vehicle had to be removed with a tow truck. The pipe bent with the impact and wound up in the engine compartment after the vehicles bumper and front crossmember rode up over it.

My mailbox pipe is steel welded to an old truck rim that is set just below ground level. My wife circled it with pavers and made a neat little flower bed. As it is heavy pipe, if it gets hit, that rim will most likley try and stand upright under the vehicle that is driving over it...

 

[Mike058]

My mailbox pipe is steel welded to an old truck rim that is set just below ground level. My wife circled it with pavers and made a neat little flower bed. As it is heavy pipe, if it gets hit, that rim will most likley try and stand upright under the vehicle that is driving over it...

I found 2 truck tires, one still attached to the wheel and a passenger wheel and tire on my property. I was wondering how I was going to recycle the steel truck wheel, thanks.

 

[Mike058]

I took a small size rural style mailbox and inserted it in a large size one and filled the gap between them with concrete. I haven't had any mailbox problems since.

I like it.