@&#*& Teenagers!!

[Nyboy]

Got a call this am from sheriff . My mailbox at country home was knocked down, this makes 4 times in 10 years. Teenagers drive down dark roads hitting mailboxes with bats. Thing is after last time this happened I bought a cast iron mailbox and had it bolted into cement. last nights prankster could have a very sore arm today.

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

so i take it they didn't catch them? here's hoping that someone would be dumb enough to brag about being sore from their handiwork and confess, if the police haven't caught them yet.

 

[canesisters]

Time to build a brick tower with the box inside......

 

[Smiles Jr.]

Here's a short story relating to mailbox vandalism.

About 30 years ago, in a small town south of Cape Girardeau, MO, a neighbor of my parents was having trouble with repeated mailbox smashes. Understandably, frustrations and anger was mounting with each attack. My dad and the neighbor got together and designed a 'vandal proof' mailbox. My dad provided an 8" diameter pipe that was 7 ft. long and a mailbox-looking hunk of 1/4" thick steel. Dad's neighbor sunk the pipe into concrete and filled the pipe with more concrete. He welded the boiler-plate mailbox on top and added the door and flag. It looked very nice for about 6 months. The postal driver complimented him on his good job.

One summer evening three boys decided to attack the new mailbox. Evidently the boy riding shotgun in a convertible car had to slightly open his door to swing an aluminum bat and the driver got too close to the target. The door hit the post and broke the kid's right arm and shoulder. The bat flung back into the back seat and caused a concussion on the boy sitting back there.

Dad's neighbor was found guilty of obstructing the right-of-way and a few other charges. He was found guilty and was told he had to pay all damages, hospital and doctor bills, and spend 30 days in the county jail. The neighbor appealed. After 120 days the neighbor's attorney got him off of all charges due to the fact that the mailbox was more than the legal distance from the pavement and that there were three telephone poles within 1/2 mile that were closer to the pavement. Which indicated that the boys had to purposely leave the pavement and swerve onto berm to hit the mailbox.

At no time were any of the lawyers allowed to discuss, in the court room, the fact that the boys were actually trying damage someone's property. Crazy laws.

 

[lesa]

Smiles, that story is enough to get me to go rent a post office box! What a world we live in!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Another story. Happened when I was a hig school senior to boys in my class. Five boys were called out of class to go to the principal's office. These boys were at the top of the class, senior class president, starting fullback, one of the top basketball guard prospects in the state, kids like that. They were wondering what honor they were getting ready to receive.

An FBI agent was waiting to talk to them about blowing up mailboxes with cherry bombs or M-80's the previous night. Vandalizing mailboxes is a Federal offense. Because they were basically good kids and had so much to lose, it never made it on their record, but they paid restitution and performed community service.

 

[canesisters]

The big problem in my area isn't the kids - it's the grown men! They come down the road with those big farm tractors and the even bigger things attached to the back of them and tear up all kinds of things down the sides of the roads. My mailbox has been hit twice. It's now on a section of 'fence' built out of 4x4's. At least if they take it out THIS spring, they will notice that they've hit something!

 

[Carol Dee]

Smiles, I actually laughed when I read the damage the box did to the hoodlums~ Sorry to hear that Dad's neighbor nearly had to pay them! Crazy world. My father was a rural mail carrier and it was not uncommon to find a row of smashed mail boxes from time to time.

 

[curly_kate]

Seems like our road got hit recently. There are about 4 or 5 down. Our neighbor & our mailboxes are in the same place, so he made one out of iron with 2 iron "boxes" attached. So far, the kids have avoided ours. Or they haven't hit it hard enough for us to notice. It happened a couple of times at our old place tho. So frustrating!!

 

[journey11]

Smiles, that is just insane. What a messed up system we have that criminals can sue their victims for damage. :/

At least a brick one would be hard to knock down (unless you hit it w/ the car!)

We have a lot of paintball attacks around here. Teenagers drive by and "target" shoot at things.

We also had a case a couple weeks ago where they were taking saran wrap and tying it on one telephone pole, then crossing the road and tying to another just to watch people freak out as they drove through it. Then they moved up to tying a rope across the road. A friend of mine ran through it with their van and it scratched the paint as it pulled up and over the vehicle. What if a motorcyclist would go through it? NOT good. Could lose their head! Seriously, what is wrong with kids these days?... (Rhetorically speaking...because I have a few good theories of my own.)