Mailbox Fantasy Fulfilled

[Roger T.]

This is my dream mailbox! I'd love to see the guy's arm after he took a bat to that one, going by at

30mph!

[Richard J Kinch]

Wow. You won't find that kit at Home Depot.

[Jeff Wisnia]

I was driving down a street we'd owned a home on some 20 years ago, and turned to glance at our old abode. That's when I saw the mailbox in front of thge house right next to our old one.

It was like a dream come true...

Like many others with streetside mailboxes we'd suffered with local "yoots" making sport of knocking them down with their vehicles. I'd often thought of sinking an "indestructible" post into the ground, but listened to SWMBO's brother the lawyer, who warned me I'd likely be in deep doo doo if someone got injured driving into it, particularly in this liberal and litigeous state we live in. (Taxachusetts)

Apparantly whoever's living there now decided to take their chances on that, 'cause here's what their mailbox looks like:

The box looks like it's about a foot higher than USPS regs. I'd guess that whoever sunk that I-beam into the ground ran into a big rock while digging the hole, and didn't have anything handy to cut the beam shorter.

Jeff

[Bo Williams]

I used to work with a guy who was a serious hobbyist metalworker, and one thing he did for people was build indestructible mailboxes. He did use I-beams, but in the interest of aesthetics eventually went to a post that had a cross-section the shape of a square with rounded corners (sorry, don't know what this is called, but I'm sure it has a more elegant name than that). He built the box too, not just the post.

On our way in from lunch one day he took me to the back of his truck and showed me one he was delivering after work. Very impressive. The box itself was made out of 1/2" thick steel, and was very well-finished. After installation, you'd have to examine it pretty closely to know what a brute it was. He said the whole piece--box and post--weighed 425 pounds.

[Philip Lewis]

A guy near where a friend of mine grew up (wheeling WV area) took a pole and sank it in the ground, then ran the pole up and *into* the mailbox. (so that the pole was all the way to just under the top of the arch). The pole and perhaps even the shell of the mailbox was filled with cement. Don't ask how he found out about it... at least not until he's had a few. ;)

The i-beam doesn't look like it's inside the mailbox in the picture... which just means it's a smaller target. If the beam were inside the box. it doesn't look like there would be room for mail.

[Heathcliff]

I had this problem some years ago. We lived at a 90-degree bend in the road and people would come around the corner too fast and whack the mailbox (or sometimes they would just kick it over for the heck of it). After going a few rounds with the Post Office, which would not let us move it our side of the street, etc., I decided to make a more durable post. Not being a metal worker I used a railroad tie.

Soon thereafter someone ran into it. It was a teenage girl and she had just crumpled the fender of Daddy's new (very modest) car. She was unhurt but pretty darn upset and we let her use our phone to make a tearful call home. While part of me was thinking "that'll teach her a lesson," most of me was feeling sorry for her and regretting the whole situation. After that I went back to a regular mailbox post. Just something to think about.

[Jeff Wisnia]

No, the steel doesen't go into the box, and the box is just a crummy black plastic one with the door ripped off it. Methinks the plastic box may survive bat whacks and spring back better than the sheet metal ones will.

Jeff

[Sexytom976]

LOL, first good laugh I had in awhile.

Thanx.

LOL think of the situation if he's using an Aluminum bat!!! First and last time the would mess with your mailbox.

[George E. Cawthon]

Yeah, but wouldn't it be fun to watch a bunch of teenagers come down the road and swing a bat at one of those mail boxes made of 1/2" steel mentioned by another poster. Bat would just break or be thrown back around with such force it would put a heck of a dent in the car, break a window or maybe the kid swinging it.

[bumtracks]

Used to hear the mail box crunch two or three times during high school football season ... school was a couple miles away. They'd just drive over it. Took a short chunk of rebar and beat the heck out of it bending a decorative hook on the end and drove it next to the mail box post so the hook was about bumper high... I'd hear the crunch and it going down the street sometimes ... neighbors used to toss it back in my yard when they'd see it laying in the street blocks away. From the looks of it, probably lots of sparks from the grind marks.

[Stormin Mormon]

Would it be easier to wait in the bushes with a shotgun and a load of double ought?

[Jason Quick]

I've, uh, heard of people doing a similar thing with a snowman that was driven over. Rebuilt the snowman, but not before driving a six-foot rebar stake into the ground, with the top *right at* the height of the oil pan/transfer case/muffler/differential (depending on the make) of a car.

You fill in the blanks.

Jason

[Broncearse]

"Stormin Mormon" wrote in news:23yQd.11447$ [e-mail]:

LOL We have a mail slot where the mail goes into the garage. One of our wonderful neighbor's kids decided to light matches and throw them into the mail slot.

We didn't even know them yet. We were very young to buy the house. We saved our money like crazy to buy it. People in the neighborhood were jealous because we were the same age as their kids.....who were losers. Heck, one of them has to be almost 50 and still lives at home. Don't think she ever held a job. She did go to college and she has a newish car in the garage. She never drives it anywhere and it stays in the garage. B.

[MUADIB®]

When I was a kid we used to just build our snowmen around a fire hydrant...............some of them got destroyed..............by idiots riding around on bicycles or something..........never saw who did it but there was definitely tracks right up next to it and a sizeable spot in the snow indicating some sort of disturbance.

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MUADIB®

one small step for man,..... One giant leap for attorneys.