Maibox baseball problem and worse

[sailorman]

I live in a rural country area. I seem to be the main and singular target most of the time. My mail boxes ( have 2 ) have been gettin' repeatedly bashed but last night it got worse . They were bashed and egged out side and in including mail I had inadvertently left in them over night .

I know about the things like did I aggravate a supposed neighbor, local teenager in their minds, random repeated act based on a sick individual who gets a kick out of singling out a target, and taking my mail in daily .

There may be no solution, but I 'm willing to listen . I don 't want to do anything that may place me in a liability situation as the civil laws seem to favor the criminal rights over victim rights . I can 't place a game cam or such for evidence as it would have to be on a neighbor 's frontage . Bad idea 'cause it could be stolen, neighbor might country blab about it and cause even more problems. No, I don 't think its him 'cause he 's been friendly and helpful in the past and his box is in between my two making it a hard target .

 

[Mousefield]

Bit of a tough one. When we recently, after a couple of years without, had dirt bikes trespassing on our road I went to the police and asked them (nicely) to patrol a bit more. If you know the approximate times this has happened that would help them. If you have or can put power near there could you put up motion activated lights? Hope this helps.

 

[sailorman]

Bit of a tough one. When we recently, after a couple of years without, had dirt bikes trespassing on our road I went to the police and asked them (nicely) to patrol a bit more. If you know the approximate times this has happened that would help them. If you have or can put power near there could you put up motion activated lights? Hope this helps.

Thanks Mouse for suggestions. Unfortunately, the local Leos have their hands full ( they put it politely ) with higher crime according to them. No power options as boxes are on road frontage ( parish owned.. oops county for those not from here ) of neighbor 's property. Gotta feeling light also might make boxes a more visible target anyway.

 

[GregbkH]

Have one built out of plate steel. Put a trail camera on it and let the fun begin!

 

[johnrex62]

Sounds like a prime excuse to setup a hidden camera to catch the act and license plate.

Be careful of reinforcing a mailbox too much. 25 years ago a subdivision I worked in had a rash of teenagers destroying mailboxes. Someone rebuilt their mailbox with a steel post down the center of the brick platform and the kids totaled their truck running it over. There was a mess of lawsuits flying for a while against the homeowner both from the kids parents and from the post office. It seems that you cannot put a deadly object on the roadway in case a vehicle leaves the roadway accidentally. The parents were screaming attempted manslaughter because it was known that mailboxes were being targeted.

 

[LMTC]

20 years ago I built one of 1/4" plate steel. Mounted it on a wooden 6x6 post. Got hit a few times, no damage, then someone tied a rope or chain to it and yanked it from the ground. It was 40' downroad, in the culvert, jammed into some small trees. I suspect it acted like an anchor, and they had to disconnect their chain or rope. I put it back in the ground and haven't had a problem in about 19 years. I did not mount it in concrete because of liability...I wanted it to come out of the ground if it got hit head on, yet the heft of the pole and box would take some toll on the vehicle body. Never happened, just some apparent bat whacks of no consequence other than to the paint, and then the dragging incident.

 

[beppington]

How about adding an extra "sacrificial" mailbox, installed in the most line-of-fire (if there is such). Put some made up name & # on it. Maybe they'll attack that one instead. Your chances are reduced anyway.

Or ... a cheap disposable camera, with flash, mounted up in a tree. Rig up a sensor & wire of some kind to trigger the flash when somebody even touches it. During the day the mailman shouldn't even notice it, or care. At night, it'll get their attention!

 

[KennyG]

I've lost a few mailboxes. I had an idea but never actually tried it. I think if you make the box heavy, but don't anchor it too solidly, it will probably break the bat and teach them a lesson. I was going to get the largest box I could find and put a smaller one inside and then pour concrete between them. Then just mount it normally to a post.

I moved and don't have a problem now, so I don't know how this would work.

 

[acme97]

You should also report to Post Office, if the mail has been damaged or resulted in you not getting the mail it could be enough to get them involved.

 

[thatguy]

You should also report to Post Office, if the mail has been damaged or resulted in you not getting the mail it could be enough to get them involved.

I had the same issue last year and our got hit about 5 times (like 7 times totally over the past 3 yrs).. I reported it to the Sheriffs dept and the Postal Inspectors (online but cant find the link right now) -

On the last report the Sheriff sent a deputy out to instead of just taking the information over the phone.. It just so happened that a LOT of cars drove by while he was looking at the damage and I saw some very surprised faces as ppl drove by.. it has been over a year now and no more damage has even been tried.. I think whoever was doing it saw the Sheriff there and realized it was being reported..

I ended up buying a cheap plastic mailbox ($8) and mounted to base on the pole using velcro That way it would just come off if they hit it instead of crushing..

Dont even waste your time with the 20 lb 'vandal resistant' boxes ($60) at lowes/Home depot - ours only took one hit. AND I couldnt pull the dents back out it to resuse it..

Our best mailbox was a 'cast' aluminum one that took about 5 hits but i could bend it back in shape and reuse it over and over and over..

brian