Vandalism to our mailbox

Someone smashed our mailbox last night -- and I understand a couple of other boxes on our street. Don't people have anything better to do with their time?

Unfortunately, no. Some years ago a professor of mine had an ongoing battle over his mailbox. He finally got a huge boulder and chiseled out a niche for the box.

Some yahoo got a chain around it and dragged it across the yard with their truck.

Vandals are nothing more than little babies wanting attention.  I heard of one person who got tired of having his mailbox smashed by drive-bys using a baseball bat. He bought a new box, filled it with concrete, put it on a steel post filled with concrete and laughed his head off when the vandal dislocated their shoulder hitting it.

Oh jeepers.  I remember one of my teachers in high school saying after he lost a 2nd mailbox he just put the first back out and had a crummy looking mailbox for a while.  I've always wondered if it was a student.  Seems like a juvenile thing to do.  In our old neighborhood one morning some kids came around and slashed one tire of every car on the street.  Our houses only allowed for one car in the "driveway" so most people had another in the street.  It turned out to be 4 teenage boys.  We kept getting little $2-$5 checks for a while.  

kookycats said:

Someone smashed our mailbox last night -- and I understand a couple of other boxes on our street. Don't people have anything better to do with their time?

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Actually besides vandalism, I do believe there may be Federal issues with smashing mail boxes. If you can catch them, you can scare the bejesus out of them with that. Mailboxes are considered Federal property and vandalism to them can be considered a federal crime. It's not a laughing matter. I don't know about all areas but in my area the theft and/or vandalism of political signs in yards is illegal and WILL be prosecuted if caught.

I guess you can ask the Postal Inspectors for a label to put on your box to scare the vandals. . .https://postalinspectors.uspis.gov/raddocs/tipvandl.htm

We don't have trouble with our mailboxes here. But we do have idiots who are driving around, drinking beer during the night and have no place to put their bottles. So they throw all the bottles out as they drive by. Every weekend everybody along the street ends up with 2-3 beer bottles in their front yards.

At least empty beer bottles are better than the spit bottles I find in my yard. . .

NutroMike said:

Actually besides vandalism, I do believe there may be Federal issues with smashing mail boxes. If you can catch them, you can scare the bejesus out of them with that. Mailboxes are considered Federal property and vandalism to them can be considered a federal crime. It's not a laughing matter. I don't know about all areas but in my area the theft and/or vandalism of political signs in yards is illegal and WILL be prosecuted if caught.

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This is very true. I deliver in some very rural areas where people have their mailbox at the end of their driveway and not visible from the house in many places. I have one that filled a regular mailbox with concrete and placed the real mailbox on the other side of it. Many are encased in steel tubes and such.

After one certain family moved, we haven't had much trouble like that.  The Forest Service has blocked access to the National Forest temporarily, so the tweakers have gone elsewhere.

Winchester said:

We don't have trouble with our mailboxes here. But we do have idiots who are driving around, drinking beer during the night and have no place to put their bottles. So they throw all the bottles out as they drive by. Every weekend everybody along the street ends up with 2-3 beer bottles in their front yards.

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Around me they do the same.  Or for a nice twist, they will smash them.  They also eat the to go boxes of chicken/fries in car and dump them on grass with bones still in there so when walking the dogs I have to REALLY watch.  Anyone with a dog knows they can "sniff" the ground and pick up something in a second!

In my city mail box is on the house near door.  If they were on street there would be a maor issue with smashing them IMO.