Living in a quiet rural area usually means peace and simplicity. That is, until someone decides to vandalize your property.
So, what would you do if your mailbox was repeatedly destroyed? Would you just replace it again? Or would you build something that could stop a car in its tracks?
In the following story, one family faced this very decision.
Here’s what they did…
My best friend and I are both sons of police officers. His dad was a Highway Patrolman, and mine was a Deputy Sheriff and detective.
They are both retired now and living comfortably.
This story happened shortly after we both graduated high school about 15 years ago.
Someone smashed the mailbox.
My buddy and I grew up in a rural area that was mostly quiet and rarely had any problems.
That changed when one weekend morning, my friend’s family discovered their mailbox smashed and scattered along the road in front of their house.
They chalked it up to a hit-and-run, gathered up the mail, bought and posted a new mailbox, and went on with life.
The next weekend, it happened again.
It was time to get to work.
Flash back a few months before my buddy’s dad retired. He decided he didn’t want to quit working, so he went down to the local trade college and became certified as a welder.
After the second time their mailbox was destroyed, my buddy called me over to his house, and we all went to work.
They constructed an indestructible mailbox.
Buddy and his dad did the welding and cutting, I did the grinding, and his mom [who is a fantastic artist] did the painting. Throw in two bags of cement, seven feet of steel pipe, and the necessary re-bar, and you can probably guess where this is going.
We built an all-steel reinforced mail bunker and set it in with three and a half feet of concrete and a road base.
Remember my friend’s mom, who is a really good artist? She painted it so that it looked like it was made out of wood. The steel post looked incredibly realistic, even up close, let alone at night when driving a car 45 miles an hour.
We posted the box, had dinner, and I went home.
It would be easy to arrest the culprit.
A couple of weeks went by, and bingo.
My friend called me around 7:00 am on a Sunday morning and told me to get over to his house ASAP.
When I came around the turn to their house, there it was in full glory. A 92 Pontiac Grand Prix wrapped around a steel pole almost to the passenger compartment.
The car was abandoned, but all the information needed for an arrest was there.
The owner’s charges added up quickly.
It took a couple of days to track the owner down, and sure enough, he confessed. However, there was also a half-empty bottle of Canadian Host and beer cans all over the back seat, so he got an open container charge, too.
Add the cost of a tow truck and the medical bills for smashing his stupid face into a steering wheel, and that criminal mischief charge added up really quickly.
I later found out my friend’s little brother stole the guy’s CD book, too.
Realizing the mailbunker could get someone hurt, we repainted it after fixing it to something more conspicuous.
Ouch! Bet he was more careful from that point on.
Let’s see how the readers over at Reddit relate to this story.
This really depends on local law.
Yikes – this is terrible.
Too funny! A Lego mailbox; that would be amazing!
The mailbox is only dangerous if you’re trying to destroy it.
While some people find this funny, it is actually very dangerous.
If you liked that post, check this one about a guy who got revenge on his condo by making his own Christmas light rules.
