My street was used for a game of mailbox baseball last night. I've got a big Rubbermaid mailbox that faired pretty well against the abuse. The only damage was the front door got ripped off and is no where to be found.

I called Rubbermaid this morning and they say the model has been discontinued and they no longer have parts for it. I'm going to try to remove the back door and place it on the front then seal the back with wood or something, I dunno. Looks like I may need to spend money on a new mail box. Kinda bummed. :-(



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/30/2006 08:04AM by karsen.

Sorry.

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Da Good Life

sorry? LOL. Send him new door, you fool!

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We had by-the-door mailboxes back home; mine was cast iron and virtually indestructible. I got it here:

[www.frontgate.com]

Yeah, it was pricey, but again I wanted something that would outlive me & the house.

I hate that kind of mindless vandalism. I can remember an early apartment my wife and I lived at, right after my first son was born, when I parked on the street one night (which I never ever did; I just happened to get home when my wife's friend was there and didn't move the car into the drive). That night, someone went down the block shooting out car windows with a bb gun.

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And the youthful vandals just don't get it that they are committing federal felony offenses. I had a friend in the neighborhood growing up- he pipe-bombed a few mailboxes, got busted, and was on probation until he turned 18. No driver's license. no job, etc.

He probably went into politics...

Friend lives in a rural area, was tired of his mailbox being batted to death.
Put up a security cam, the box still got batted, the perpetrators parents didn't care, the sheriff was too busy to pick up kids due to "Youthful Exuberance".

So he bought a new mailbox, and installed a very large steel pipe inside it, then welded it to a concrete filled pipe buried about four feet in the ground.
He now has a whole bunch of blooper reels of kids standing in the back of pickup trucks going about 30 MPH, with aluminum bats taking a windup and suddenly contacting what is essentially a solid chunk of steel. Most of the time the bat flies out of their hands, but my favorite was the one where the dufus makes full contact, flies out of the bed, and breaks his arm.

That was five summers ago, he hasn't had a problem with these kids for three summers, seems word got around fast.

BGnR

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Zoidberg
We had by-the-door mailboxes back home; mine was cast iron and virtually indestructible. I got it here:
<br />

<br />
[<a target=_blank href="[www.frontgate.com];]
<br />

<br />
Yeah, it was pricey, but again I wanted something that would outlive me &amp; the house.
<br />

<br />

I hate that kind of mindless vandalism. I can remember an early apartment my wife and I lived at, right after my first son was born, when I parked on the street one night (which I never ever did; I just happened to get home when my wife's friend was there and didn't move the car into the drive). That night, someone went down the block shooting out car windows with a bb gun.<br />
<br />
<img src="[images.apple.com]; />

In 1995, I bought a 1993 Used but MINT Explorer... Unfortunatly, some kids decided that they wanted to through bricks, rocks and for sale signs at car windows... Lucky for me, some nosey old lady up the street saw them steel her sign and called the cops... Unlucky for me, they already through the sign at my car... Lucky for me, they got caught 3 streets over by another cities law enforcement.

Really p***ed me off but it made me feel good that they got caught. Unfortunation, when I said to the cops "let me beat the crap out of their car for a couple of minutes and we'll call it even" he treated me as the guilty party and told me to watch my mouth...

Their "we only did one car" turned about to be about 12 cars... All which they where responsible for paying for the repairs...

Bill



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/30/2006 12:16PM by spacescape.

I Think the simple solution would be to have a removable box. Bring it in at night, put it out when you leave.

Or, a complex retractable box.

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That used to happen a lot when I was in high school - about 4x per year.

We finally had one made by local ornamental iron place. Came welded to 8 foot pipe (6") that we filled with concrete before actually putting it 5 feet into the ground and using an 24" form.

One night we heard it - and it never happened again. I know what it feels like to mis-hit a foul ball with an aluminum bat. These idiots were using one - and I'm certain the batter was in significant pain for hours.

Oh ... I knew, because he dropped the bat on the drive by.

I looked for injuries all week at school, never saw them, but I got a nice
bat out of it. Still have it, actually, 28 years later!

Quote
Jimmypoo
That used to happen a lot when I was in high school - about 4x per year.
<br />

<br />
We finally had one made by local ornamental iron place. Came welded to 8 foot pipe (6") that we filled with concrete before actually putting it 5 feet into the ground and using an 24" form.
<br />

<br />
One night we heard it - and it never happened again. I know what it feels like to mis-hit a foul ball with an aluminum bat. These idiots were using one - and I'm certain the batter was in significant pain for hours.
<br />

<br />
Oh ... I knew, because he dropped the bat on the drive by.
<br />

<br />
I looked for injuries all week at school, never saw them, but I got a nice
<br />
bat out of it. Still have it, actually, 28 years later!

That's great... Served him/them right... FOWL BALL...

I think a transformer mailbox, that converts into a killer death robot when it detects a vehicle approaching it.

Our daughter painted our white mailbox with a river scene. But the vandals came and smashed it flat. I put up a sign saying, "Thanks, Vandals. Sarah, who painted this, really appreciates your work." Then after a while Sarah painted us a new box. We put it up, and a few months later, one Saturday night, it was trashed.

So I gave up, bought a cheap plastic box, and moved it off the road. Sure enough, they smashed that one, too.

I considered buying one advertised as made of indestructable steel, but figured they'd just steal it. And they aren't cheap. So I bought another $7 plastic box. What the heck; eventually they'll end up in dead-end jobs or in jail and forget about us. And it takes only about 5 minutes to screw on another plastic one.

The mentality is hard to fathom, though.

/Mr Lynn

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On the river in Saxonville.

When I was in HS, my friend's mailbox was the target once too often. His dad poured concrete in a nice steel tube and welded plate steel on top. He then cemented a smaller mailbox into one of the giant ones. This was then welded onto the plate. The first kid that hit it was the last one. He broke his arm in several places. On Monday, we knew who the guilty party was. Best part of it, was he was a "star" athlete who wound up missing his senior season due to the injury and a scholarship to boot. Couldn't have happend to a nicer person.

I'm willing to bet that someone, who was injured in such a way, has sued a person who did that (steel & concrete) and won.

My dad's friend used to do something like this, except with garbage cans (i.e., driving into them). One night, one of the people on this guy's regular run wised up, and filled the garbage can with cinder blocks. So my dad's friend wrecked the family car.

Quote
Zoidberg
I'm willing to bet that someone, who was injured in such a way, has sued a person who did that (steel &amp; concrete) and won.
<br />

<br />
My dad's friend used to do something like this, except with garbage cans (i.e., driving into them). One night, one of the people on this guy's regular run wised up, and filled the garbage can with cinder blocks. So my dad's friend wrecked the family car.

Yeah, just put up a sign "DANGER, FILLED WITH CONCRETE AND YOU MAY OR MAY NOT BREAK SOMETHING... WE TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR ACTIONS".