My mailbox has been trashed...what now?

In My Humble Opinion
21

That’s why you call the Postal Inspectors and explain it. Don’t tell them you have photographs. Get them to come over, see the damage (take a long time inspecting the damage!) and allow them to photograph the damage. If they forgot a camera, have a brain fart and offer to get some pictures for them, back in the house. Keep the Inspectors outside, while you walk to the house and back. Then turn over your photos to them.

This isn’t about making the Postal Inspectors wait. It’s all about keeping them in front of your house, probably with an official US Govt vehicle parked out front for your neighbors to see. Sure, you will have to pay for the repairs yourself. Just study your neighbors for the next few weeks, especially their body language. No one may own up to it but they will give it away.

22

I went out this morning and the mailbox itself had been moved to an upright position but was still on the ground. Peeked in; yep, they had delivered mail yesterday.

I went over to my local post office with the now-developed photos.

  1. Clerk at the window said, “Wow, let me get my boss. Wait at the door over there.” So I gathered the photos and stood in front of the door.

  2. Voice to my right, not at the door, says, “Are you waiting to talk to me, sir?” Uh, yes…I step over to the window explain the situation. “OK let me get my boss.” OK…

  3. After what seemed like ten minutes, a voice to my left. Yes, the big bosses (two) are at the door. “What can we do about it?” one asks. They give me a number to the local Postal Inspection Service. I return home.

  4. I call and an operator for the local service says, “No, you need to report that to this toll free number.” So I dial them.

  5. The operator on the toll free number says that since the mail wasn’t tampered with or anything, it’s a matter for the local police department.

So I called them and made a report. This operator said frankly without any evidence etc. they wouldn’t be able to do anything. But, who knows, maybe a kid gets caught and is somehow tied to this incident.

I expect nothing to come of it except money out of my pocket.

23

I saw this as inevitable. No evidence but a smashed mailbox. Petty vandalism isn’t going to rile your police or the postal inspector.

My mailbox post disintegrated over time, just rot, and became hard to deliver mail to it. If it stays on the ground too long, it’s likely the mail carrier may start to pass it over.

I shared a post with my neighbor like you did - I just moved his box to my new post, too. If that cement jacket can be removed, it should be pretty easy & cheap to put in a new wooden post and cross-member.

24

Yeah I figured it wouldn’t do much good except make me feel a little better. The only real chance it will draw attention is if a rash of mailbox smashings starts. For the moment, I’ll put the box on the “planter” while I research what to do about it.

25

Less Power!! Argh! Argh! Argh! Argh!

26

That’s what I would have done as well. (Same thing I told a friend of mine when she had a tire slashed during the night). There’s probably nothing the cops can do, but if they catch someone out breaking mailboxes (or slashing tires) perhaps this can be pinned on them as well. OTOH, there’s always the chance they had already picked someone up for smashing mailboxes…

Now, a question, what defines ‘tampering with the mail’ if you had simply mentioned that your mail had already been delivered that day and it was scattered all over the driveway, would that count, or would it have to be that it was stolen or opened? (Not that I advise lying, I’m just curious)

27

It happened on a Sunday, so I don’t know. They sounded interested in things like identity theft.

28

Update: So I finally got to talk to my neighbor.

I can’t recall whether she found it Saturday night late, or Sunday morning early, but the entire thing was on the ground, across my driveway. It would appear that someone tipped it. Since it landed on my mailbox, that’s what smashed the cladding around it.

She couldn’t right it so her husband did. He was not happy…besides the property damage, they (an interracial couple) think it may have been a “message” from someone. They have no suspects as far as I can tell, but we have had 2-3 new families move into the neighborhood of late.

I guess I was in a hurry when I left around 1:00 PM Sunday; I didn’t notice it as I drove out. The crosspiece (top of the T) is cracked. Hmm, what to do?

29

Looking at the pictures and the curb below the mail box looks like there could be a tight corner there.

Is any one doing some remodel in the cul-de-sac? That might require them to pull a trailer? Or a moving company coming through? (You stated that you have some new neighbors).

Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

30

Appreciate the theories, but I doubt it.

The new families have been moved in for at least a month.

If we ass-u-me they were driving on the right side of the road it would have been knocked the other way. I don’t see scratching or paint at a point of contact. I think it’s heavy enough that if you managed to hit it with a sideview mirror, you’d lose the mirror. No evidence of other carnage (broken mirror pieces etc.) out there.

And then there’s the timing. It seems unlikely that anybody would be pulling a trailer through on a Saturday night.

I never think of my neighbors as an interracial couple; they’re just nice folks. Maybe they’ve been getting the evil eye or something. And then there’s always the random “kids out goofing around in strange neighborhoods” theory.

31

I think you’ll just have to chalk it up to a random act of vandalism*. Without any real proof, you’re going to drive yourself mad trying to figure it out.

*Make that a random act of vandalism that you’ll have to foot the bill for. BTW I still think those pieces are big enough that you can probably glue them back together. At least see if you can fit them together, you’ve got nothing to lose.

32

I priced new mailboxes and like all things home-related, it was a case of “Holy Shmogles!”

I’m going to head over to Home Depot and see about some epoxy. I envision me with various bits of concrete glued to my person, but oh well, I have a doctor’s appointment today already anyway.

33

Here’s a mailbox - not just any mailbox, a *premium *mailbox - for only $13.88. Unless importing stuff to the Secret World adds a lot to the price. Actually, I bought a similar one at the local supply store for $11 just a month ago. (My old mailbox had suffered too many blows from baseball bats and snowplows.)

34

OK so I collected the pieces, brought them up on the stoop, laid out some newspaper so I wouldn’t attach anything to the stoop, etc.

Conclusion: the JB Weld won’t do it. For one thing, I estimate the pieces total out at at least 50 lbs. If I had a serious workshop with vises etc. maybe…but nah, I’d clamp myself to the ceiling somehow. And the other thing: because it’s cement and pebbles, too many bits fractioned off to make a nice “jigsaw” fit. I realize that maybe I should have used more, but looking at all the seams I’d have to fill it starts getting too expensive to justify. Lastly, it might come out all veiny even if I did manage to get it to hold together.

But, it was worth $4 to try. Back to the drawing board.

35

After our mailbox was repeatedly destroyed by the snow plow (complete with the two of us finding mail all over the place once the snow melted) my husband filled a container with cement and stuck a heavy pipe in it. After it dried, he stuck a smaller pipe inside that and then mounted the mailbox to it. Now when the snow hits it at 60 mph, it just spins it around. We haven’t had a mailbox mishap in many years now.

We had to pick our mail up at the post office for about 4 months last time. What a drag. :frowning:

36

Thanks for the link (and isn’t everything Wally sells ‘premium’? :stuck_out_tongue: )! The existing box is a little banged up but serviceable. My initial search was looking more at finding something that might lock.

This is nice, and their (corporate) website shows a viddy…seems highly secure. But $190?
http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=89311-64124-7106&lpage=none

At $67 this wouldn’t be bad except two of them wouldn’t fit on the post:
http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100023993&N=10000003+90401

This is kinda interesting @ $40…an insert for existing boxes.
http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=258955-64152-5519&lpage=none

I dunno. Have to talk to the neighbors.

ETA here’s a 5500 mailbox for that insert. A paltry $200
http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=258955-64152-5506Z&lpage=none

37

Well, they have to plow, and the higher the speed, the farther off the road the snow goes. So it’s the best way to keep the roadway wider. The occasional mailbox just happens to be the loss, unfortunately.

lobotomy I’ve lost several mailboxes - the last one my neighbor’s daughter took out with his truck. Scratched and dented the side of his truck as well. Whoops. My mailbox was $10. I’m assuming it was slightly more to fix his truck. I even offered him rubbing compound to take care of the scratches.

38

The saga continues…

I finally found a place on-line that sells something like it.

Mini rant: when you google with generic terms like “concrete” “mailbox” etc. you will go positively batty. This is because mailboxes are set in a concrete base or random websites have “mailboxes” for you to contact them etc. It’s official; I’m nucking futs.

OK, just to replace the mailbox with its “sheath” is $95 + S/H.

I’ve been on the horn with the neighbor a couple times. I guess money’s tight over there as well. She felt the need for some security and, I’d say, kind of dumped on me.

It’s a weird property layout here, being half a duplex. Originally built by someone who had both halves, the sprinkler controls for part of “their” yard is in “my” house. So when I moved in they said, “You water it; we’ll cut it.” Worked for me.

Today she said again that her husband had been pretty pissed (again, being an interracial couple possibly provoked it; she’s associated with the PD, so maybe that’s it. Or maybe it’s just a random group of new teens in the 'hood, which gets my vote).

Then she said he told her, “We cut his grass, we’ve cleaned out the leaves from his gutter and we raked up his yard; has he ever said ‘thanks’?”

OK, so my jaw hit an all-new low. For one thing, I never asked them to do those things, nor did I think it was implied by our original agreement. I do appreciate it, but with regard to the gutters—I never noticed. With regard to the leaves, if there’s no ordinance requiring me to bag them up, I couldn’t care less if they sit where they fall on the ground. Ahem. Wow. Gee. Huh?

BTW if I were up on the roof I wouldn’t clean theirs…not because I wouldn’t do the work but because I wouldn’t presume to alter their property. What if I damaged something? Ah well.

Back to the matter at hand. I think next time I talk to her I’ll say, "I’m going to have to pay about $125 no matter what to replace it and bring it up to where it was. Just prying off what’s left of the old sheath may break that crosspiece, and then where would we be?

“I’d rather put that money toward a locking mailbox. So how about if I put the first $125 into the kitty and we split the rest? I.e. if it ends up costing $425, subtract that $125 and you pay half of $300—$150. I pay $275.”

What do you think, dopers?

39

If it was me, I’d just buy a regular replacement box for $20. I’m assuming I’d figure out how to get the broken concrete bit off the cross beam.

40

Actually, it might be better to leave that chunk where it is and epoxy the box to it.