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Thread resurrection; they actually managed to take out the TuffBox last night. I think we got our money's worth, though - for $80 or so, it outlasted the $20 boxes by enough to justify its cost at least twice over.

Whoever did it had to get out and beat on the front of it with some sort of tire iron or similar. It damaged the powder coat in three places, bashed the door in past its reinforcing bar, split part of the hinge weld, and tore out the 3.5" screws holding the box to the chunk of hardwood that mounted to the post. The neighbor's box was gone, but I forgot to check any farther each direction for overall damage.

The S.O. sergeant that took the report also asked for a couple of names from the other direction down the road, saying that there were no boxes visible at several houses, but no easy way of knowing if they'd given up and gotten post office boxes until he could talk to them as well. He also mentioned that, with it being Sunday, a lot of folks might not even notice their box is gone until they go to check the mail tomorrow.

Anybody want to make an offer on 23lbs of good quality scrap steel?

dukalmighty wrote:I think ya need ta put up a fake mailbox made outta concrete and painted to look like the real thing,one good swing at that baby and i bet he can't feel his hands fer a couple days

So far, the TuffBox has done fine; I think a determined vandal could get out and hurt it with repeated swings of a hammer, but they haven't done that to this one yet. (That's what did in the first of the normal boxes: 18 impacts from both faces of a ball-peen hammer - about a 16oz, judging from the imprints. The second got smacked and pounded back into shape about three times before we bought the TuffBox, and the night before I went to switch it out, someone stuffed fireworks in it and lit them off - during a burn ban and right after a series of huge wildfires about 10mi north of us. Needless to say, that one got reported as well, and the deputy was *very* annoyed when she found some scorched grass near other mailboxes along the road.)

They must have been annoyed at not being able to dent it with whatever they were using; the flag was about 20ga steel, so it couldn't have been easy to break off.

When we move, I'm planing to set a heavy pipe in concrete to mount it on, though I'm pretty sure the box itself (23lbs, IIRC) would cause a *lot* of damage to any vehicle that tried to run over it.

Humanphibian wrote:If you have the right surrounding to make this work....get you a Game Camera. They are great, even work in total darkness. Get it mounted up high enough they cant get to it then wait.....After their next visit, take the pics to the S.O.... the Newspaper, and then call the FBI or you local Postal Inspector's Office! Tampering with mail, or destroying a mailbox are both FEDERAL CRIMES punishable by 3 years in prison and/or a $250,000 fine.

Unfortunately, the ones I've looked at don't have the flash range I need. I have a low-light video camera, but I have to have 110 available for the VCR since it's well out of wireless range. I'm thinking of combining an IR game camera and some IR LED illuminators scattered around, but we'll probably be moving by the time I get around to assembling all that.

stevie_d_64 wrote:Dirn, this has been going on for a while...

Are they just getting yours, or does it appear the "bored" kids are running around tagging others in your area???

Hard to say; ours is in a somewhat convenient spot, and far from the house, while a lot of folks on this road built with short driveways on the assumption there would never be much traffic. The vandals are apparently bright enough to avoid the ones within easy pistol range of houses, so I have to guess where they went next to find out if we've been singled out each time. The last two times at least, there have been others hit.

So far, the connection is still that they hit right at the beginning or end of the month. Every time was the last or first of the month, except the time I was watching until the 3rd, and they hit it the next night. If I do surveillance again, it'll be in full camo with a very discreet setup.

Hope you got a statement (report) getting filed soon with your local law enforcement...

Two so far, and the last one with a detailed statement of two hits since the first. This one will go in a list for next time, since our damage is negligible. If the neighbor decides to call them, I'll make sure he has copies of my previous statements so they can keep everything together.

Grrr...somebody got the mailbox again tonight. Smashed the neighbor's flat as a pancake, but they were only able to break the flag off ours. I hope they at least got a sore wrist from the shock when they smacked it.

FWIW, it's the heavy-duty (Tuff Box was the name, IIRC) 20+lb box that Home Depot carries for ~$65. Money well spent, since we don't use the flag much anyway, and they probably offer replacements cheap.

KBCraig wrote:Did you have a vehicle parked where he could see the plates? If your SO is equipped with MDTs, you wouldn't hear anything about it on your scanner.

No MDTs, and this one didn't even appear to be carrying a personal laptop.

OTOH, maybe he figured that anybody who watches their mailboxes and trashcans that closely would also take steps for their own protection, and since I wasn't standing there with a shotgun in hand, I must have had something more discreet.

Just got done talking to a deputy about our trashcan being destroyed again. Noticed it this morning on the way in from work, and guess what's laying among the wreckage.

A deputy came to get a statement and take possession of the wayward license plate, and in the process asked for my ID. He took the DL, and waved off the CHL saying "I knew that."

Since I wasn't wearing IWB, and had a full coat on over my Coronado vest, I meant to ask him how he knew, (I had been listening to the scanner so I'd know when to meet him at the road, and the information wasn't passed in anything I caught) but we started going over the statement right away and I forgot about it until he left.

He did mention that they had caught a mailbox vandal just a couple months ago by the same method, and that both the prosecution and a couple of small-claims suits had been successful. I wish they'd publicize their success stories in this, though; a front page story describing the sentence and the civil suit damages (without giving a name, so they don't get easy bragging rights) could go a long way as a deterrent.