And The Hits Just Keep on Coming!

security

For years country mailboxes have been the targets of bored teenagers out for a little raucous batting practice along country roads. Since victims’ mailboxes are generally some distance from their houses and they have not been watching their mailboxes 24/7 every Saturday night, the hits just keep on coming!

Many country mailboxes have been replaced over and over again. Victims of such vandalism know that unless they get a new mailbox installed right away, the U.S. Postal Service will not allow mail carriers to deliver mail. After just a few days of storing the mail when it cannot be delivered, the USPS simply returns that undeliverable mail to the senders.

A lockable mailbox constructed of thin 14 or 18 gauge steel or aluminum does not solve the problem. Sooner or later, these models get smashed or pried open again. Such damage represents the vicious cycle of mailbox replacement and the repeated expense and inconvenience involved in getting a new country mailbox so the mail carrier doesn’t just walk on by.

Today, as the teenage mailbox bashing continues with each new crop of baseball batters, new attacks arise to damage both urban and country mailboxes. 

  Now, even younger kids are getting into the fray. It seems to be no problem for a ten-year-old to purchase some dry ice. What can a kid do with dry ice?

The dry ice is poured into a plastic water bottle or discarded soda bottle. In a short time, this seemingly harmless creation becomes a bomb. Bombs like this placed in mailboxes actually blow up most models. They don’t necessarily turn the mail to ashes like the pipe bombs do, but they definitely total the boxes.

Hopefully, the children of today are being taught to read and to think. Hopefully, they are rewarded for their efforts at innovation. Hopefully, this country is educating the leaders of tomorrow to be creative thinkers who guide their constituents into positive channels.

Some creative little kiddos are thinking, all right. They are devising other ways to decimate both urban and country mailboxes. They have created a new way to play marbles. They take a pocketful of the little round treasures and a pea shooter or a paintball gun and go about the business of target practice on the poor innocent mailboxes.

There is a simple solution to this problem of vandalizing country mailboxes. Simply invest in a 2 gauge (1/4 inch thick) steel locking mailbox and then forget it. Wise mailbox owners who install such heavy duty, high performance country mailboxes will never again be victims of mail theft or mailbox vandalism. The hits may keep on coming, but the damage will not be done.