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.

 

[EastTexFrank]

It used to happen a lot at the farm. I built a post box within a post box and filled the void with concrete. Set it on a 6" square cedar post set 4' in the ground. It got hit a few times but I never had to replace it in six years. I did worry about some poor soul hitting the post with their vehicle and having that 200 pound lump of concrete come through their winshield.

After some road construction it had to be replaced with a TxDOT approved mailbox. It seems that State Law requires break-away mail box posts on all state highways. Well, it's been broken away twice in the past 6 months. Sometimes I just wish to go back to the good ol' days.

 

[California]

It seems that State Law requires break-away mail box posts on all state highways. Well, it's been broken away twice in the past 6 months.

I wonder if a truck wheel or a similar base, that tips up under a car, would technically meet the breakaway standard yet halt the idiot.

I saw an idea posted once that I liked. A VW owner was supposed to have modified his rear bumper bicycle carrier so if someone nudged it in a parking space, the rack would hinge down and imprint a VW logo on the idiot's hood with an impact proportional to how hard it was nudged.

 

[Egon]

This may be the tip over style that was referred to. I have heard that if properly hit it usually requires a tow truck to remove the vehicle.

 

[Farmwithjunk]

After having our electric company back their trucks over my mailbox 3 times while they were turning around, the neighbors hitting it twice, and then THE MAILMAN hitting it 2 winters ago, I decided to install a post that would require the Jaws of Life to extracate any vehicles that decided to take on my mailbox.

6" X 3/8" wall iron pipe, sunk 5' in the ground, with a yard of 3000psi concrete around the base. Pipe is filled solid with same concrete. Then a piece of 1/2" plate welded to the top of the pipe with 1/4" plate forming a protective shell around a plain ol' plastic mailbox. (My wife just stood and watched me build it, all the while with an "I don't know this man" smile on her face)

This winter, the road dept. clipped it with a snowplow.

Scratched the dang paint on the post, did they....!

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Just remember folks, when the neighbor lady who's kids are crying in the back seat hits it because she turned around to see whats the problem with the kids... That will make you feel like you got your moneys worth.

I bet the kids(vandals) who vandalized your mailbox are still in high school.

 

[Soundguy]

Too bad it isn't legal to just shoot vandals like that. I'd for sure loose some sleep for a couple nights in order to send that kind of message... Oh well.. have to rely on the (un) justice system for this one...

good luck on your problem. You can only hope that on their next drunk tirade they run off the road and extinguish themselves into a power pole or large hefty non-movable tree...

soundguy

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

 

[Soundguy]

That's a 'reason'.. not an excuse. Lets not overlook the fact that it is driver responsibility to keep their vehicles on the road and from striking objects... if the lady next door can turn around and irresponsibly look into the backseat and clip a mailbox.. she can also clip pedestrinas walking onthe road.. or run of fthe road and clip a tree. all 3 are examples of driver ERROR.. lets not sugar coat this..

soundguy

Just remember folks, when the neighbor lady who's kids are crying in the back seat hits it because she turned around to see whats the problem with the kids... That will make you feel like you got your moneys worth.

I bet the kids(vandals) who vandalized your mailbox are still in high school.

 

[Farmwithjunk]

Just remember folks, when the neighbor lady who's kids are crying in the back seat hits it because she turned around to see whats the problem with the kids... That will make you feel like you got your moneys worth.

I bet the kids(vandals) who vandalized your mailbox are still in high school.

If my mailbox was along a busy highway, or even on a dark country road, I MIGHT not have built such a crash barrier. But... My driveway (and mailbox) is at the very end of a dead end road. If my mailbox didn't stop that "lady with the problem kids", she'd go off the end of the road and down into a rock lined ditch. OR, miss the mailbox and hit the end of a 16" culvert with a concrete headwall at the end of that.

It's not MY responsibility to provide a safe haven for someone elses IRRESPONSIBILITY.

Point is, NO ONE has ANY business going more than 5MPH or so when they drive up to my mailbox. NO ONE has EVER hit it going any faster. They just run into it at slow speed, and now get a good solid jolt instead of knocking my box over.

 

[slowzuki]

Neighbour had lost too many boxes so used an old axle shaft inside a post and welded a 1/4" box on top. Then covered the plate box with the sheetmetal of a normal one. Many a broken bat found out on his driveway.

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

 

[daTeacha]

In this lawsuit crazy society that worries more about the rights of the wrong- doers, someone might be on the wrong of an expensive settlement of your reinforced mailbox causes injuries in an accident. Our law calls for nothing with a breaking strength more than a 4x4 wood post. One guy around here made up a post by welding several automotive coil springs together. It's not going to break, but it won't cause serious injury either.

I can feel your anger. After mine was hit 3 times in a week and contact with the sheriff had little result, I stayed up one night with a 300 watt halogen worklight and my 12 gauge loaded with birdshot, hiding in the bushes near the box and figuring to mark the car and scare the "manure" out of the kids responsible, maybe taking out the radiator and a headlight if I got a chance. The preferred style around here involves someone jumping out of the car and taking a good swing with a bat. I also had the box filled with concrete block sections and bricks, figuring that would slow things down. Wouldn't you know it, they didn't come back. I'm probably lucky they didn't since shooting someone's car just might qualify as poor behavior on my part.

I saw the local deputy and inquired, and was told they had caught the two kids.