I came home late yesterday to find my mailbox lying on the ground. Here are some pictures…I haven’t rearranged or touched anything.
My initial guess would be that the kids who play on the street somehow trashed it, but unless it was deliberate (i.e. a baseball bat), I don’t know what could have enough force to do this. And it looks like the pieces were stacked after the fact, doesn’t it? That says “adult” more than “kid” to me.
Problem 1: I don’t know how to fix it.
Problem 2: Even if I could make it functional, it won’t look pretty.
I called my insurance agent. Not much help there unless it goes over the $1000 deductible. As you can see, the neighbor’s is on the same unit. Maybe I’ll just have to talk to them and see if they want to scrap the whole thing and start over.
You will have to pay for it. A snow plow destroyed mine twice this winter. I know that it is a pain but that is all you can do.
As noted above, report it to the postal inspectors. If it makes you feel any better, if the perpetrators are caught, they will be subject to penalties wildly disproportionate to similar property crimes. Destroying mailboxes is a federal offense and the U.S. Postal Service tends to hire postal inspectors from the ranks of people deemed too mean to join the FBI or TSA. I had friends that played mailbox baseball one night when we were in high school. They were caught and what happened next almost destroyed their families with all of the lawyer bills and legal actions. They didn’t go to jail but what they went through was plenty enough for everyone. Let the bastards have it. The USPS will take the matter very seriously.
FYI- Unless a plow literally drove head on into your mailbox, or backed directly into it, it was not the plow that actually touched it, only snow.
The wave of snow flying off the edge of the plow carries an enormous amount of force. I’ve seen mailboxes decimated by town plows passing by and the snow banking is what actually destroyed it - the plow blade never touched the mailbox at all.
Thanks for the replies. I still haven’t touched it…I can either run over to the PO or try to catch the mailman when he comes today.
Strange that the neighbor’s box was unscathed. Most if not all of the other boxes on the block are enclosed in bricked structures, so there’s not much chance of damaging them unless you’re willing to go M80.
Re: fixing it…it looks like it’s a “modular” thing, doesn’t it? Like maybe they can just “sheath” a mailbox and attach that part rather than rebuild a whole unit.
ETA: I double-checked my front door to make sure nobody left me a note accepting responsibility.
I don’t have much expertise at all and I’m afraid it would turn into that episode of the Brady Bunch where they glue the vase back together. The big question, I guess, is how much difference there would be in price. If I could pick up a new section and bolt it on for a few bucks more, that would be the way to go.
I wish Walgreens would finish my prints so I can take them over to the PO.
Mom always said, don’t play ball next to the mailbox. Maybe one of the kids just had a really good arm. You are lucky that someone didn’t get a bashed up nose.
Including me, no doubt. On the one hand, you have Tim Allen…on the other you have me, who is smarter in that I don’t buy the power tools to begin with. :smack:
Not more than usual…I think. There was a woman I dated. She told me she’d call, didn’t, then did, apologized, then nothing. I don’t think she’s interested. Therefore, knowing what I don’t about women, she probably did it. :dubious:
It had to happen between 1:00 and 6:30 PM, broad daylight.
There are a couple new families on the block. The kids range from 8-16 maybe. I notice the neighbors got their boy one of those “pocket bike” type things and he had a pretty bad wipeout (from what I heard when it happened). They were right there and it didn’t seem to faze them. I notice the teenagers are out there a lot and they aren’t too eager to clear the cul de sac to vehicles that need to pass, either.
To the 13 year old’s credit after he plowed into my mailbox last year he manned up and had the guts to come to my door. He was driving some sort of mini-bike and lost control.
All kids make mistakes and I didn’t want to get him into trouble with his parents. Actually I was more concerned about how he was.
He paid me 30 USD, which didn’t come close to my replacement costs but I was impressed enough with him to eat the additional costs.
The poor guy looked so scared that I had to show some pity.
I’m not thrilled to have to pay for it, but I’d probably have gone the same route. I’d take it as karma for something half-assed I did as a kid myself.
But, nobody’s owning up to it. I was out tonight so I didn’t hear a knock on the door if it came. Walgreens didn’t have my pictures ready till just before the post office closed, so I’ll get them in the morning and take them over. Unless there’s been a rash of this, I expect I’ll just pay and be done with it.
