Children+Mailbox= Me not happpy

[Chase Mueller]

It is not illegal to reinforce your mailbox here--so long as you are compliant to US Postal codes. It is very common to see a brick housing built around a mail box or in more rural areas for a well pipe fence built around it.

See, that's what I was going to do in order to be legal, then the HOA I didn't know the house was a part of was like ha, nope. Shame

[andrew whicker]

It sounds really frustrating, but kids can break their wrists by swinging a bat into concrete. I personally don't want to do that to a kid because he and his buddies decided to have dumb fun.

I did a lot of dumb stuff growing up. I didn't vandalize, but I'm also not going to severely injure a kid over a mailbox. They'll grow up, buy a house, get their own mailbox and then deal with it later in life.

[Chase Mueller]

You're probably right, I'm sure it's in good fun to them, but frustrates me to no end.
what these kids don't realize, is that I may not want to involve the cops. Maybe I wanna even the playing field, or better yet, one up them, and remain anonymous. I wouldn't hurt them or damage their parents property, but maybe I can have some fun with this actually.. Any suggestions?

[Mike Henderson]

It is not illegal to reinforce your mailbox here--so long as you are compliant to US Postal codes. It is very common to see a brick housing built around a mailbox or in more rural areas for a well pipe fence built around it.

Practically every house in my neighborhood has a stone or brick structure housing the mailbox. I'll post a picture or two later.

We don't have any problems (that I'm aware of) with mailboxes getting damaged. All the neighborhood kids are perfect angels

Mike

[Here are a few of the "protected" mailboxes in my neighborhood.}
2018-04-13Mailboxes001.jpg 2018-04-13Mailboxes003.jpg 2018-04-13Mailboxes002.jpg

[Malcolm McLeod]

... then the HOA I didn't know the house was a part of ...

If you truly did not get notified of the active HOA on your property, then you need to look real hard at your title company. This is so basic to their job that it's laughable that they missed it. Your closing package should have included the by-laws (with covenants and restrictions), the annual (or monthly) dues and assessments, HOA management company info, and any prorated amounts for payments to the HOA year-to-date at closing.

If this was in the closing package, well .... I'll leave that alone.

As for the mailbox, when i was young (...last week), a group of younger 'gentlemen' with whom I was acquainted, decided to mow down mailboxes with their pickup. Apparently this was quite funny. Somewhere in course of this prank, a mailbox mounted on a 2x8 snapped off, came thru the windshield, and hit one of them in the face. No, I wasn't a participant, but it was a small, no-secrets town. It was my sad task to attend the funeral, see a families' grief, and most notable to me was the effect on the driver. It was not pretty.

The mailbox in question wasn't 'reinforced'; it simply fit well on the 2x8, and that attached quite nicely to a 4x4 PT post. Just like eleventy-seven others on any given stretch of American road. Moral? If you're doing something stupid, there is virtually nothing the homeowner, the post office, or even the nanny state can do to guarantee your safety.

Presumably this is done from a vehicle, so perhaps a post 12" away on the 'upstream' side to prevent batting practice by passers-by? Just needs to be big enough to impede their swing; not so much to total the car?

[Chase Mueller]

Sorry to hear of someone's passing. May tick me off, but I'd never wish death for something so juvenile and generally harmless.

Just to clarify, I don't own the home, I rent. My friend owns the home but travels for work something to the nature of 200+ days a year. Honestly the perfect roommate.

[John K Jordan]

...then the HOA I didn't know the house was a part of was like ha, nope.

I hope that's not the reason the last people moved!

I wonder if those of us who did not have fun vandalizing things as kids might be less understanding. The local paper did a story on a guy who had to replace his mailbox a lot, sometimes more than once a week if I remember correctly. Every time I drove by the mailbox was dented - I think he left them up even if well smashed and sometimes even when on the ground - said the mail carriers sometimes would put the mail in the smashed box in the ditch! He saved a big pile of smashed mailboxes and didn't seem concerned about it, in fact more amused than anything. I sounded like it was a community tradition to drive by his place with a baseball bat, perhaps made more tempting since he lived far from the road on an inside curve with no neighbors in sight. Someone said he enjoyed a similar hobby when he was a teenager.

I wonder if you can construct a mailbox from some kind of rubber such as a piece of 3/4" thick stall mat rolled into a tunnel and bolted to a 2x6. That might be harder for the authorities to claim it would hurt someone. Or use the rubber to wrap and pad an officially approved mailbox. That stuff is incredibly tough. And/or attach a strong steel box to a hinged break-away post - when knocked over pick it back up and hold it with another piece of duct tape. Or make the post flexible so it will bounce back. Maybe producing flexible indestructible mailboxes and posts would be a good business venture for you in your spare time. Quick, file for a patent. (Offer an enhanced model with an optional strobe light and audio alert, maybe wifi notification. Ha.)

Oops, google tells me the flexible post has already been done ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWJkFKMnUas ) along with snowplow-proof mailboxes:



The only mailbox trouble I've ever had was right after we moved here when a neighbor accidentally backed into it and broke the post. He was ready to drive to HD and buy a new one but instead it was an opportunity to enjoyed some quality time in the shop together making a new one from a cedar 4x4 I had just cut on the sawmill. It's was better than the old one! (and still good after 14 years)

JKJ

[Stan Calow]

Anybody can sue anybody for anything, anytime. Whether its legal or not.

[John C Cox]

The thing is - generally kids have enough sense not to go after steel and brick work....

My bigger concern is swerving out of the way to miss the 3 year old who darts into the road and wrapping your car around a mailbox post..

I think you may have better luck buying a cheap "Trail Camera" and mounting it inconspicuously in a bush with good visibility of the mailbox... Wait a week or 3 and see how it goes. Just make sure you look into the "black flash" models... The white flash models go off like a conventional camera.... If you have a "regular" one - put it way up high out if the reach of teenagers....

[Chase Mueller]

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll check with my post office and see what they say!

[Myk Rian]

Maybe this mailbox will have them second guessing their actions.

S&Wmailbox2.jpg

[Chase Mueller]

The thing is - generally kids have enough sense not to go after steel and brick work....

My bigger concern is swerving out of the way to miss the 3 year old who darts into the road and wrapping your car around a mailbox post..

I think you may have better luck buying a cheap "Trail Camera" and mounting it inconspicuously in a bush with good visibility of the mailbox... Wait a week or 3 and see how it goes. Just make sure you look into the "black flash" models... The white flash models go off like a conventional camera.... If you have a "regular" one - put it way up high out if the reach of teenagers....

Also a good idea. Luckily I'm off a curvy, hilly gravel road. And I do mean gravel, not dirt, so people drive respectfully slow. Well, except for the ahole with the rhd civic that sounds like a pissed off bumblebee

[Chase Mueller]

maybe this mailbox will have them second guessing their actions.

S&Wmailbox2.jpg

i need this

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

There was a case near Lancaster PA about 30 years ago. Kids driving down a country road bashing mail boxes. One home owner had enough and placed a cinder block in his mail box. The kid hanging pout thhe ffront passenger window swung the bat at the mail box, but the bat bounced off the extra heavy mail box and through the open back window where it killed the rear passenger. The home owner was chargeed with some form of negligent homicide and after thousands in attorney fees he plead to some lesser charge. and got a suspended sentence andd whopper big fine. His home owners endeed up paying the kids estate a big settlement. There was indeed a big stink over it. 18 years ago, I had problems with somebody knocking over my trash every week. I put the trash can out Wdnesday nite anndd by thursday morning it was knocked all over with trash spewn everywhere. Well, even putting the can back ten feet off the road did not help. (I live a half mile back off the road and can't see the driveway where it intersects with the road. So I filled a metal trash can with firewood. and placed it out there. Some one hit it and knocked it over. But I noticed the teenager up the street had a massively destroyed passenger front end. Head light busted out etc. Never had a trash can problem again. Although one day, I was working replacing the mail box post and the kids truck went down the street with no one in it. It crashed into a neighbor's car. Ignition was on, engine running and nobody in it. We are a good 1/4 mile down the street from his parent's house.

[Kev Williams]

Chase- Go to Home Depot and pick up enough solid firebricks to fill your mailbox with them. Leave just enough room for the junk mail
Pretty sure there's no law against that... HOA won't know about it... only you, the mailperson, and the kid with the broken ar.... uhh, bat.

(I got NO sympathy for vandalizers)