Years ago we had teenagers in the neighborhood that did the bat thing and cherry bombs in the mailbox. I never could figure out why it was such fun to do such wanton destruction. Everyone knew who it was but you have to catch them in the act. It's generally kids that are two old to ride their bike, but to young to drive a car and they don't quite know what to do with themselves.

Georgysmom, that sounds a lot like "hormones", doesn't it?

Yes. :0) I live on a flag lot. So between 2 houses on the street is a driveway uphill to my house. So, I get a phone call, what do "you" know about a rock thrown thru my kitchen window?(house on the leftside of my driveway). I say nothing, but the guy on the right side of my driveway was asking DH what your name was.....? Yep! Guy on the right threw a rock at a deer, missed....and just left my neighbor to wonder what happend....!!!!!!

Sorry about your mailbox and trash toter.

We have a neighbor boy who buys way too many firecrackers (you are not even supposed to shoot them off in our neighborhood) and the booming/blowing up goes on for a month past the 4th of July. I hate it because it scares the wild birds and dogs. It is such a quite and peaceful place otherwise.

So did you report the pipe bomb to the police and USPS? The trash tote is kinda weird... Not something that you'd clean up and sell at a flea market...

Seems this kind of "mischief" goes on generation after generation. Doesn't make it okay, just sad that this nastiness keeps happening. My guess is Georgysmom is right about the age group. Also makes me wonder why their parents have no clue where they are, since this stuff usually happens late at night when most decent folks are in bed asleep.

My house is the last one on a county road, just before the State Rte. I get all the eggs, tire marks in the yard and even a paint ball hitting my front window not long ago - in broad daylight!

Oh my gosh! That's ridiculous!

One sad thing is, even if you knew who they were, if you say something to the parents, you usually hear, "Not my kid" I highly respect parents who make kids own up to their miss-deeds, and make them pay someway. We did this when our kids were young and did things they were not supposed to. A couple winters ago my son had trouble with kids driving their snow mobiles through his yard. He talked to the dad, and he said he would talk to the kids. Then the kids did it again and this time chased down and killed my sons dog. Again my son talked to the Dad and he said he would take care of it. The following weekend, the Dad drove into my son's driveway, in his truck, pulling a trailer with two snowmobiles. He just wanted my son to know that he sold the sleds and were delivering them the owner and my son wouldn't be bothered by his kids on the sleds again. He said talking and warning them what he would do if they continued to drive them where they didn't belong, and by not minding, they didn't deserve them. I say Hoo ray to that father.
I'm sorry for the trouble you are having, and I hope you can find out who the vandals are, and they get the punishment they deserve.

Wow, Dotmom, that's surprising! And great! Lately, the biggest vandalism around here has been to my mailbox and I'm 99% sure it's the mail "carrier" himself. I have a box with a little flag that pops up when you open the door. It's to let me know that the mail has arrived. Well of course lots of times kids walking down the street open mailboxes and such so there's been false alarms but one day I saw the slimeball trying to break the flag off my old mailbox. So that box was replaced, now this one has been vandalized and I really miss that little indicator. I don't like wasting a trip out there if there's no mail. So I only go every couple days now. I have cut down my junk mail. Anyway, then about a week after, the box was laying on the ground next to the post. Someone ripped it off the post totally. Sheesh. OK, so I put it back on and now I just took some large "cable ties" and wrapped around it. Doesn't look the fanciest but that's what you get folks. If I see a new box on sale, I'll get one. I am sold on the Rubbermaid mailboxes. The extra large ones so a large (manilla type) envelope or magazine can lay flat in there. But I don't like paying $30-$50 to replace something that should last. Yes, kids vandalize. Kids are kids. But really... the damn post office has to vandalize???? I should add another experience. I get quite a few rebates from a local DIY place. They have a lot of free after rebate stuff. Well, one day I hadn't been getting my rebates and was in a bad mood. Then something happened with the carrier so I called up the post office and laid into a supervisor and threw in that I'm not getting my rebates - where are they? You know what he said so I needn't elucidate, but want to know what's interesting? About 3 days later, the missing rebates were in my mailbox, and they had been folded into fourths...perfect size to fit in SOMEONE'S wallet! I'm not making any further accusations - draw your own conclusions.

And now, our postal rates are going to increase... yet again. Any wonder why I fax, email and use the phone to avoid giving a penny to the d@mn post office???

Rant over. Carry on.

dotmom I am so very sorry about your son's dog. Not that the brats Dad taking away the kids toys will bring him back, but it's good to hear when parents discipline their children.
cynic, Too bad you can't get him on video tape. I believe a post box, even one purchased by the home owner, is considered federal property.

I was right....

Here is a link that might be useful: Mail Box Tampering According to Federal Law

We have an iron mailbox set in from the street along our driveway. Kids are not likely to turn into the drive and nobody's going to whack *that* box with a bat.

I don't want a flag on my mailbox; don't want to signal that there is mail in there. We never put outgoing mail in our box for the same reason.

Our lot is bordered by a creek, so there are often kids messing around down there. That's OK until they start spray painting the bridge supports or leaving a lot of trash in the water. (Time to call the city.) Mostly they are fine. Recently I've noticed some tame mischief has been to rearrange the small boulders we have along the street (placed to keep trucks from running up onto our grass). Kids have SO much energy, and I guess it's a 'feat of strength' to roll those stones around!

I did call the police for both events...not that I expect much, but in the event someone gets caught in the act, I want to be on record.

schoolhouse....paintballs would have me furious!

dotmom - if someone killed my pet I certainly wouldn't leave it up to the parents to discipline. I'm glad he did something, but too little, too late if it were me.

I spoke to the mail carrier on Saturday and she told me that without the label, a baseball bat and such is just considered vandalism - an explosive of any kind is a federal offense.
She went on to say that, by the letter of the law, if you have the sticker attached(see the link above) any malicious activity having to do with the mail box is a federal crime.

Dotmom, the little creeps chased and killed your son's dog and all that was done was their snowmobiles were taken away?? Was the police called? Vandalism is one thing, but to chase and kill a dog is a lot more sinister.

Some (very few) rural mail carriers should not even have a job. I understand they get paid for the number of boxes they serve. Our carrier is CA really got angry because they put up a big box, the kind that have a bunch of little ones with keys and she lost money. We would find mail all over, but we had a PO box in town where all the good stuff went. Never came at the same time either. New rule which most rural carriers hate--the car has to be checked each day by the PM after the route is done. Nothing left in the car either. Everything has to be checked in and taken out the next day. Our rural carrier here is furious!!!.

The only problem I've had is putting Netflix movies in our mailbox, they usually turn up missing, never making it back to Netflix. Very odd. I stopped putting them in there and never had a problem, then decided to put them in this one time and guess what? Missing movies again! Either someone in the neighborhood is checking my mailbox for movies or the post person is stealing the movies. I love Netflix, though, they've never charged me for them.

salgal, I was sitting here at the computer when it hit the livingroom window - top sash thank goodness and not the bottom which is screen on the outside. It was a loud "bang" and I jumped up and saw a big pink blob on the glass, ran out the front door quick and saw what I suspected was the vehicle, stop slightly at the stop sign and continue fast across the highway on down the country road. Why they would do it during the day is weird.

The paint looked like the color of bubblegum, and I cleaned it off real quick so it didn't dry.

Boy, I'm heading into town Monday and getting us one of the stickers. When our mail boxes were all lined up on the country road just out side our neighborhood entrance someone had drove, we assume, by and took out all the mail and scattered it along the near by highway. The Postmaster said it was happening all over the area where groups of mailboxes were on country roads. We were then told we could all place our mailboxes on the bus turn around just inside the neighborhood. Luckily we now have half the lots filled in our country neighborhood so we have them at the end of each of our driveways. It should be pretty safe since there's only one way in or out of here.

You need to talk to Flamingo about this topic.
I think they lost like four mailboxes in two months?
Her husband came up with a solution that stopped the destruction. I remember Susan threatened to arm the mail box with plastic explosives so it would blow up when the kids hit it. Common sense prevailed but she was at the end of her rope after the 4th box was annihilated.

Lori