Rural Mail Boxes

bpence · Feb 15, 2001

My mail box got wiped out in early December - that was at least the 3rd one in a year. Somebody hit it with something (motor vehicle type something) and snapped off the 4x4 post and crushed the mail box. Several other mail boxes on our road were just beat up with baseball bats that same night. Well, I had enough and decided to retaliate in my own quiet way. I had a friend weld up a mail box for me out of 1/4" diamond plate steel. I sank a railroad tie 4 ft. into the ground and filled the hole with rocks and cement. Then I lag bolted (three 7 inchers) the box to the top of the cut off railroad tie. I then attached a 3/4" plywood door using a BIG strap hinge and bolts. This was a great project - tractor and post hole digger, chain saw, welder, power tools, hand tools, simply awesome. Come on......hit me that new box and post said!!!

Last night it looks like someone took up the offer and went ahead and hit it. They tried to take off the mail box with a baseball bat. How do I know? There was a glove and 1/2 of a baseball bat laying by the mail box this morning and the paint on the box was scuffed where someone obviously tried to hit it and take it off. My wife originally thought the new box and post might be a bit of overkill, until I told her the story when I called her later this morning. Being one of the people on this earth that was born nice, she is normally very soft spoken (God knows how she puts up with me) and never has anything but nice things to say about folks. Her response to today's mailbox incident, "Well, if it broke their arm I guess it serves them right, doesn't it. Stupid bastxxds." I was totally taken aback. Well, it seems that the mail box vandals also got my 93 year old neighbor's mail box and some other friends' down the road before they got to our place. She kind of watches over our old neighbor and gets pretty mad when someone does something improper around him. He's now worrying about how he's going to get his mail. We'll fix that up with a temporary mailbox tonite.

My wife called everyone on the road and told them how our mailbox is still standing, with barely a scratch. Rumor now has it I'll be helping to install railroad ties for posts this weekend and new 1/4" diamond plate mail boxes as soon as our friend can get them made. Everyone wants to tap my "engineering" expertise. HA, HA, HA, HA. That's pretty funny.

Boy, I just love it when a plan comes together. Normally, the vandals that try to whack mailboxes with bats will ride in the passenger seat, sometimes the back of a pick-up, and swing away at unsuspecting mail boxes. If it didn't break someone's arm hitting that box with a bat, it must have really hurt like crazy. Takes a bit to break a baseball bat. I wonder if they'll come back and try and hit the post with a truck or something? If they do, it'll be interesting to see who wins.

Bob Pence

Bird · Feb 15, 2001

Sounds good to me, Bob. My mailbox is on a 4" steel post set in concrete, and hasn't been touched in the 6 years I've lived here, but I live on a county road where you can do almost anything you want. My brother lives on a farm to market road (state maintenance) and you can't put up your own pole of any kind on those roads anymore. The state sends a man out to put a "breakaway" post, just set in the dirt, so it's been replaced a couple of times in the last 4 years.

Bird

Thomas · Feb 15, 2001

Bob,
Sounds a person or persons don't have much to do other than smash mailboxes etc..
To bad you couldn't setup a camcorder etc... and catch them on tape...proof in the pudding as they say.

Thomas..NH /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

GlueGuy · Feb 15, 2001

This seems to come around in our neighborhood now and then too. However, the usual MO is to just open all the mailboxes and throw the unwanted mail on the ground (keeping anything that's got money in it).

A while back, one of the neighbors that does welding for a living started making up some "custom" mailboxes. Made the post out of a 4" diameter steel tube. Don't know what the thickness is, but it's HEAVY. The Mailbox itself is made from an old oxy-actylene tank with flat 1/4" steel on the front and back. The front flat plate has a super-heavy-duty hinge about 2/3 the way up the front.

I backed into one of those with my pickup (accidentally; well it was dark /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif). Anyway, I poked a good dent into the tailgate on the pickup, but the mailbox just got a little blue mark on it from the paint that's no longer on the pickup.

The GlueGuy

RobS · Feb 15, 2001

When I put in a drive/culvert I got a permit from the county highway commission. Included in the permit package was brief statement about mailboxes. They must be on a post no larger than 4X4 and be designed to breakaway. Also, no "headwalls" on the culvert. I guess that would be solid vertical walls at each end. All this presumably to keep the kids and drunks from hurting themselves. Doesn't make sense to me. I like your installation Bob /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

MReeter · Feb 15, 2001

Bpence,Fortunately our mailbox is on a private access road and we don't have any problems.But my brother in law has had quite a time with mailbox baseball.I told him of heavy steel posts in yards of concrete that have been discribed here before.In his County you can not put up any such animal,if someone "accidentally" runs into the mailbox,and does major damage to their vehicle or themselves,the owner of the mailbox is liable.Now,is that some kind of B.S. or what?

Anonymous Poster · Feb 15, 2001

That is the only thing that stops me from building a bombproof mailbox, the liability issue. A local man made something similar and had to pay for the damage when it tore the wing off the plow truck.

GrantMO · Feb 15, 2001

Bob,
I admire your fortress mailbox concept. Luckily we haven't had too much in the way of mailbox vandalism yet. When we moved in a couple years ago I noticed my neighbors mailbox encased in cement and brick. It's really a nice looking affair. Later I found out the reason for the sturdiness. He's a mailman. Noone, and I mean noone is taking down his mailbox. I'm not sure how it's anchored but it looks strong enough to stop a car. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

jfakerj · Feb 15, 2001

Speaking of stopping a car. Two years ago my yougest son ran off the road in my wife's car a couple of block from our house. Every ting would have been fine except for that mail box. It was one of those steal things in concrete and very heavy constuction. Believe it or not, it totaled my wife's car. If it had been a normal mail box, all I would have had to replace is maybe a fender, windshield and a mail box. As it was I lost a car and it could have been much worse, I could have lost a son. My son helped the man put up a new mail box and we all fogot about it. The only problem is, the next person hitting one of these super duper steal in concrete things may not be so lucky and it could be one of you or worse yet one of your loved ones. Before I saw what these things can do to a car going 35 mph I thought the same way as most of you do(build it real strong). Now I say build it real strong but within reason so no one gets hurt or killed if they happen to hit the thing.

Jerry

GrantMO · Feb 15, 2001

Jerry,
Glad your son wasn't seriously hurt in his wreck. I think actually if someone hit my neighbors box there would be some dents and a big pile of bricks and mortar. We're really lucky because we live on a cul-de-sac and nobody gets going too fast down our road. I think there probably is a regulation like others have mentioned around here on state and county roads because I haven't seen any monster mailboxes on those roads. It makes sense that they can be pretty hazardous to someone travelling much over 25mph! My own mailbox is a cheap metal second hand one from Wal-Mart that is probably too unattractive for anyone to want to hit with a bat. I just have to pay attention when mowing to avoid knocking it down when I turn.