Mailbox bashing solutions

I lost several mailboxes over the period of just a few weeks, which was spendy to say the least. I also lost the nice cedar post and box holder, too: that was broken in half. Lord knows how they did that. So I decided to take the line of least resistance. I got my son to cement a heavy duty pole into the ground, but then I just wired the box on with baling wire, going through the scrollwork and over the box. Now if they swat it the box just rolls with it and it is a two minute task to refix it. If they swat the pole <shrug>

Mary

If you get a box or post (or combination) of the two that is 'designed' to cause damage to the person bashing the box, YOU could get successfully sued! (no, I am not kidding).

I know a fella who set an iron pole in concrete and was sued by the parents of the boys who drove by and tried to whack it (getting injured in the process and damaging their vehicle).

R

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When faced with issues in life, where do you look for the problem; out the window, or in the mirror?

Taking liability into concern (grumble, grumble) the "mailswing" is starting to look pretty good: http://www.ruralmailboxes.com/

A friend of mine used to have the mailbox "problem" so he built one out of steel plate but instead of planting it on a steel post he welded some car springs to the bottom of the box. Then when it got whacked it would just bounce around. He found evidence of car paint on the box more than once.

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A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have.
--Thomas Jefferson

For sure. Lots ideas sound good, Until a Law Suit is being handed to YOU~!!! Then you may think twice before building such a "trap" again to stop mail box bashing.

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I would suggest making a mailbox out of foam rubber and mounting it on a long spring.

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This is the government the Founding Fathers warned us about.....

The ultimate solution:

If your laws don't let you change the box, I would say to make / put something a foot or so to the right that would get in the way of the swing, but not mess up a car if hit by a drunken "accident" driver.

What I am picturing is something like a round fence post in the ground about a foot to the right of the mailbox, then another log leaning from the fencepost down to the ground. (same thing people do to finish off a decorative fence to mark the corner of a lot)

That way it's something like a "ramp" when the swinger tries to hit the box they'll hit the angle log and the bat will go up over the box. If a car aims for it, well, their drunk or dumb, and either way they can deal with the damage, but not get killed.

Friend in Ohio made one up out of steel plate as described above. Local Post Office refused to deliver mail to it saying it wasn't an 'approved' box. He then built a framework out of 1" rebar with an 'approved' box inside it. Solves his problem.

can you put up a trail camera near it out of site to take picture of evil people?

Coil spring mail boxes are popular around these parts too.

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"I didn't have time to slay the dragon. It's on my To Do list!"

A neighbor took a large mail box and then a smaller one. He set the smaller box inside the larger one. Then he filled the space with cement and let it dry. Next he got a really thick locust post and placed the box on top of it. No one has bashed it yet.

Another neighbor took a thick locust post and set it BEFORE his mail box. Cement in the ground....he set it on the side where the car would be driving....guess that would be on the right side of the road........since that would be where a driver would be to hit the box........so the post is in the ground, and stick up a bit more than the box on the post next to it.........I am not sure this is making sense.......basically he has TWO posts ....one has the mail box on it and the thick one is nothing but a "protection" post set beside the mail box post.......no one has bashed it yet either.......

DH knew somebody at his work that was having problems with his mailbox getting smashed. So he put up a extra box in front of the reg. one and filled the whole extra box with concrete. Well of course it got hit and the repercussion went into the bat swingers arm and shattered it. The guy sued for medical expenses and won.

Right down the road from us is a huge brick encased mailbox, maybe twice the size of the picture from Christy. SOMEHOW IT WAS PUSHED OVER!! It must weight a ton, it's been laying there for some months now.

"DH knew somebody at his work that was having problems with his mailbox getting smashed. So he put up a extra box in front of the reg. one and filled the whole extra box with concrete. Well of course it got hit and the repercussion went into the bat swingers arm and shattered it. The guy sued for medical expenses and won."

Ever hear of SSS???

guy in our neighborhood has a big mailbox of sometype of rubber like stuff that hangs on a chain which is fastened to a tree limb over the box. post office suggested this as the mail carrier wants the box on the right side of the road and there is a big ditch there so he can't mount a post. several times he's found windshield glass in the road when somebody took a swing at the box and it swung out on the chain and cracked them in the windshield

Our mailbox got bashed three times in a few months, and we just gave it up and got a P.O. box. But I'd really rather have the mailbox -- I may try the idea of putting a couple of T-posts on either side of it. The bad thing was it was in the middle of a row of mailboxes, and ours was the only one getting bashed.

Kathleen

What I did was to take a plastic 5 gallon pail and poured it full of quickcrete put my pole in that and put a 4 inch form around it and filled it with concrete and covered the side with some large rocks and set it beside the road. The mail boxes on each side of mine got hit but mine didn't. They got 20 before mine and 3 after mine. It looked like the tried to get mine but all it did was to lift it some what and move it sideways no damage.Mine is a little bit higher than normal so they might have hit the post the mail man like the way mine fits his pickup.

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God must have loved stupid people because he made so many of them.

If you just put a post beside the box and put the post or pipe in dirt and no cement that is not booby trapping. It is protecting your mail box. That is what the PO told my dad to do and he lost no more boxes. My brother in law had one of the brick enclosed boxes and some one put a pipe bomb in it. It didn't go off and they traced it back to a teen that was domb enough to leave the tags on all the pieces. He got to sit in jail for quite a few years. Good luck with your boxes. Sam

I know someone that did this...he was litterally being terrorized. Not only was his mail box being vandalized but on the occasions that it wasn't damaged there would be dead animals inside. Once he even found a dead beagle in there (yes, a dog!)...so he set up a camera and caught a group of teenagers that ending up being students of his (he was a teacher).

Our mailbox has been damaged a few times but have always been able to pound it back into shape so that it closes atleast. Once it was stolen...along with almost everyone else's on our road...and left in a pile on someones lawn several miles away. I don't really get how people get a thrill out of doing this....

We had this problem over and over again. We replaced, inforced all of that. It wasn't until we oiled the box with machine lubricant, you know the thick stuff, and not of course on the handle or door, that we had some success. Seem like the perps were the same small group of boys. They would hit the mail boxes with a baseball bat. Well the grease got all over the bat, as well as we could conclude, and then all over the inside of their vehicle. They missed the rest of that season. They were back the next year for just a very few neighbors. Maybe they had done the same thing we did after a neighborhood meeting was held about this issue??
Anyway, grease in the vehicle is a sure sign that your boys may not have been working late.