topic Re: Mailbox hit once again in Community Chat

Mailbox hit once again

goldensrbest — Thu, 26 Dec 2019 14:29:53 GMT

I live on a very busy road, been a little over 6 yrs, my box was hit and destroyed for 3rd time, nice christmas present, i even put reflective tape on this last one, going to post office tomorrow,i know they will be extra busy today,and see what i can do.

Re: Mailbox hit once again

Preds — Thu, 26 Dec 2019 15:33:46 GMT

Sorry that happened again @goldensrbest . Ours seems to have that type of luck in our neighborhood. We haven't figured out why we are the only "lucky" ones. LOL

This time DH filled a metal post with concrete so our mailbox won't be the only thing damaged. Our mailman laughed so hard when he saw DH doing it. He said he had to do the same thing with his.

Re: Mailbox hit once again

Still Raining — Thu, 26 Dec 2019 14:42:28 GMT

My mean self would put in such a major structure that it would destroy their car rather than the box. Whew, got that out of my system.

Once I was customizing my new house and went out to the garage with the builder, he had installed two MAJOR steel posts in front of the water heater and the furnace. I was so insulted until I hit them a couple of times. Works like a charm.

Re: Mailbox hit once again

Krimpette — Thu, 26 Dec 2019 14:44:05 GMT

I guess that's why I sometimes see a curbside mail box with a brick surround! Sorry it's happened to you so often!

Re: Mailbox hit once again

sashamatthews — Thu, 26 Dec 2019 14:48:54 GMT

Here is what my parents did after vandals destroyed yet another mailbox. Had a hole dug into the ground, Put a piece of pipe - 8.00" extra heavy - in as the post. Filled the post with concrete. Attached a new mailbox. You should have seen the faces of the kids when they tried to knock down the new post with their car. They couldn't believe it. Bet they had some explaining to do to their folks when they got home ...

Re: Mailbox hit once again

geezerette — Thu, 26 Dec 2019 14:48:59 GMT

@Preds wrote:
Sorry that happened again @goldensrbest . Ours seems to have that type of luck in our neighborhood. We haven't figured out why we are the only "lucky" ones. LOL

This time DH filled a metal post with concrete so our mailbox won't be the only thing damaged. Our mailman laughed so hard when he saw DH doing it. He dais he had to do the same thing with his.

@Preds

That's exactly what my husband did years ago when we had the same trouble often. He also made an solid iron mailbox so they couldn't just damage the box itself. We knew it was just kids doing it on purpose.

It was never hit again, but he did go out one morning to find a chain attached to the mailbox post with someone's truck bumper attached to the chain! We were never bothered again. 🤣

Re: Mailbox hit once again

Preds — Thu, 26 Dec 2019 14:53:44 GMT

@geezerette ... Perfect! LOL

Re: Mailbox hit once again

chrystaltree — Thu, 26 Dec 2019 15:03:33 GMT

Are you saying that cars are hitting your mailbox deliberately?

Re: Mailbox hit once again

Peaches McPhee — Thu, 26 Dec 2019 15:26:38 GMT

Awhile ago a salesman at home depot told us the green Rubbermaid plastic mail boxes are indestructible. Yes they can be pulled down, but as long as it's not stolen you can just place them back in place.

Re: Mailbox hit once again

Lisa now in AZ — Thu, 26 Dec 2019 15:28:41 GMT

When I lived in Virginia on a cul de sac, our community mailbox was knocked down multiple times, but by the snow plows. I guss making it around the turns were too much, so we had to wait for new mailboxes several times during a really bad winter.

Re: Mailbox hit once again

Sooner — Thu, 26 Dec 2019 15:35:49 GMT

@chrystaltree wrote:
Are you saying that cars are hitting your mailbox deliberately?

Yes, I have known of that to happen. Our neighbor had his hit by cars (not deliberately) at least 3 times in 25 years. And it is a neighborhood where all the mailboxes are brick.

Then one lady in a van swung out over a curve, hit a work trailer full of pvc pipe parked in front of our house, drove it up on the curb and hit the fire hydrant! SHe admitted to us her travel cup fell and she looked away to reach for it. While going around a curve at a good clip no less!

I don't think she told the policeman that!

Re: Mailbox hit once again

new nickname 4 — Thu, 26 Dec 2019 16:06:52 GMT

In my state, we are required to install a breakaway mail box post. You need to check with the Post Office in your area for regulations reguarding whether you are allowed to install a solid, reinforced post. We can be held liable for injury or damage, ie lawsuits, if our post doesn't break when hit.

Re: Mailbox hit once again

kitty60 — Thu, 26 Dec 2019 16:16:47 GMT

This reminded me of a dear friend of mine. Many years ago after moving to a rural location their mailbox was consistently ending up missing. It would sometime obviously have been hit and other times the box was just missing. One day after visiting dh and I were driving down the road and saw one of their mailboxes off the side of the road. We pulled over, got out and picked it up. Being only a few weeks before Christmas we boxed the not damaged mailbox and wrapped it and gave it back to them. It was too funny!

Re: Mailbox hit once again

Travone — Thu, 26 Dec 2019 16:18:08 GMT

I don't mean to make light of your situation, but I have to admit it reminded of the comic strip Crankshaft with the bus driver always hitting the mailbox. Made me smile.

I do hope you find a solution. I know this is not a joke to you. Happy New Year.

Re: Mailbox hit once again

Fressa — Thu, 26 Dec 2019 17:26:39 GMT

We have had a similar sitution with ours but believe it or not it's the neighbors turning around in our street. No one even admits that they have done it. That's the part that "gets" me. Accidents happen but own up to it and fix it.

Here's what we did to help reduce the problem. We purchased a metal mail post. Filled it with cement. I have a brick border around the mailbox with marble chips. I put a stone cement planter in front of the post (large size) .All of this should discourage the "quick turn arounds that are not checking their mirrors). So far, this system has worked the best. The planter in front of the post needs to be heavy enough to scrape a bumper or make a noise. I had a resin one previously and they just bent that one in half.

Good luck!

Re: Mailbox hit once again

AuntG — Thu, 26 Dec 2019 17:35:42 GMT

Main roads can be bad for mailboxes. I replaced two at my old house.

Re: Mailbox hit once again

novamc1 — Thu, 26 Dec 2019 17:59:27 GMT

@Still Raining

@goldensrbest

Years ago we had our custom-built large mailbox (looked like wooden house and had a shingle roof) set on fire during a wave of teenage vandalism affecting other mailboxes, too. They had doused some newspaper with flammable liquid of some type. Could have set the entire neighborhood on fire.

We woke up in the middle of the night to flames and fire trucks.........a nice neighbor happened to be awake and saw the fire and called 911.

After that, we had a carpenter make a similar mailbox, but it didn't last long. It wasn't built as well as the first.

Then we invested in a first-class, heavy-duty white cast iron mailbox on a thick iron post. All of our mailboxes were embedded in big slabs of concrete.

One New Years Eve, someone attending a party across the street was probably the culprit who backed into the mailbox and knocked the box off the post. I found it lying in the yard the following morning.

That little incident no doubt did some major damage to the hit-and-run car that apparently hit it. Would have loved to be a spy in the yard when that happened. Too bad we were sleeping too soundly to hear the crash and see what the driver's car looked like.

No matter how hard you try and how much money you spend, mailboxes seem to be fair game for destruction!!

Re: Mailbox hit once again

goldensrbest — Thu, 26 Dec 2019 18:45:27 GMT

My first mailbox here was very expensive ,steel ,set in contcrete, did the second one the same,this latest one was cheaper,if i could i would get a solid rock post, but think i will get a post office box ,instead.

Re: Mailbox hit once again

ann1989 — Thu, 26 Dec 2019 22:18:30 GMT

@new nickname 4 wrote:
In my state, we are required to install a breakaway mail box post. You need to check with the Post Office in your area for regulations reguarding whether you are allowed to install a solid, reinforced post. We can be held liable for injury or damage, ie lawsuits, if our post doesn't break when hit.

@new nickname 4I've never heard of that. What state are you in if you don't mind my asking. Mailboxes sometimes do get vandalized. We had a kid with anger issues that took a bat to a whole lot of mailboxes and it was at considerable cost to each homeowner to replace. I suppose a metal pipe would just cause an uncomfortable reverberation up the poor dear's arm if he took a whack at one of those. Hard for me to have any sympathy in those cases and would be angry if one of my neighbors got sued by the kid's parents.

Re: Mailbox hit once again

Kachina624 — Thu, 26 Dec 2019 22:45:00 GMT

@Krimpette wrote:
I guess that's why I sometimes see a curbside mail box with a brick surround! Sorry it's happened to you so often!

@Krimpette. I've seen those bricks crumbled into a pile of lumps and dust. My suggestion would be to mount a mailbox on the biggest boulder you can have moved to your house.