I hate a thief

We're in a rural area. When we moved here, there was a problem with bored teenagers bashing mailboxes for fun, so we just got a PO box in town. We rarely use our street address for anything, even UPS and FedEx shipments.

If I order something that "cannot be delivered to a PO box", I just use the local post office's street address, with our PO box as the suite number. UPS and FedEx deliver to the post office every day anyway.

If you are a convenient distance from your local PO, this is an option. Simple, secure, and cheap.
 
NCLivingBrit said:
If you have wifi down there I use a Geeni Freebird outside my house. Self contained with a battery for about 3 months. Even if you don't have wifi it will save to an SD card on board. Decent night vision too, about 20 yards range using the inboard ir illumination. I've got a mess of different Geeni/Merkury cams and such and they work really well for the price.

Here's a still from video of me hauling away my trashView attachment 370315
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Whoa, he looks scary! Did you catch him?





😁
 
Good cameras. I wonder how a homemade flashbang would look on it?
Prolly pretty funny lol
 
Check with your local postal annex before you put in a locking box. I think we finally convinced ours to stop leaving us the "come get it yourself" slips, but time will tell.
Supervisor kept telling us we shouldn't call her employee "lazy" because ... well... we just shouldn't.
 
kcult said:
Is there a low tech option like a drop box style receptacle? Similar to the blue ones by the post office?
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That was my first thought as well. A locking mailbox/package drop could be a lot cheaper than a security system.

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Once upon a time...in the Village of Aynor, S.C......some local lads that hung around the filling station to kill time, decided on a "project". They took a small overnight satchell and put a 5 foot long Black Racer in it. They then took the satchell and sat it in the middle of the road where All Beach traffic went through. Within minutes a car with 4 Yutes in it stopped and retrieved the bag....car goes about 50 yards and......all Hell breaks loose.....Yutes from doors and windows into the middle of the highway.

I know these grown men now and they love to tell this story...where are cell phone videos when they would have been useful?

It does occur to me how easy this could fit into solving your problem.......
 
BatteryOaksBilly said:
Once upon a time...in the Village of Aynor, S.C......some local lads that hung around the filling station to kill time, decided on a "project". They took a small overnight satchell and put a 5 foot long Black Racer in it. They then took the satchell and sat it in the middle of the road where All Beach traffic went through. Within minutes a car with 4 Yutes in it stopped and retrieved the bag....car goes about 50 yards and......all Hell breaks loose.....Yutes from doors and windows into the middle of the highway.

I know these grown men now and they love to tell this story...where are cell phone videos when they would have been useful?

It does occur to me how easy this could fit into solving your problem.......
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First I didn’t do it … I swear …

Years back a young teen and his best friend were bored during a summer vacation day when they just didn’t have anything better to do. They lived in BFE and had a rural mail carrier (drove an old station wagon with all the windows rolled down). One of the teen’s grandparents had a nice barn complete with at least a half dozen barn cats. Also the grandparent’s mail box was one of those larger ones you see in rural route type areas.

On that boring day on of the teens decides to play a trick on the mail carrier. They wait for the dust on the road from the carrier’s station wagon to show he’s on his way. They grab a big tomcat from the barn and stuff him in the mail box using a small piece of a twig to wedge the door tighter so the cat can’t escape before the mail carrier opens it. After stuffing the cat in and wedging the door shut they high tail it for the tobacco barn across the road for the best view. Maybe 5 minutes later the carrier pulls up … he has to yank harder than normal to open the box (the wooden twig makes it harder) but when he does out comes the tomcat like he’s possessed. Instead of going out one of the other windows he somehow head to the back of the station wagon. Mail flew like it was a tornado back there … and the mail carrier jumps out to try and somehow deal when what was going on. Bad thing is he forgets to put the car in park and set the brake. Yep, the wagon … tomcat in the back rolls into the tobacco field a good 20 yards before it gets stuck and stops … cat still in the back.

Those two teens hunkered down and prayed they wouldn’t be seen or heard laughing their asses off as the one teen’s grandpa hooked up his tractor to the bumper of the station wagon (back then they had good strong metal bumpers) and pulled it out of the tobacco field. They had gotten away with it … or so they thought. That evening at dinner the one teen was told he and his friend better clean up the damage to the tobacco plants and be ready to prime tobacco when it comes in for FREE to pay for the value of the lost plants. They lost a good chunk of money … but watching that tomcat tornado was almost worth it.
 
Les White said:
While ridiculously illegal, I'd get a kick out of baiting them with a package sticking out of the mailbox then taking out their presented tires with a quiet .22 when they stopped. Two tires gets expensive.
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It's not like they're going to call the police..................... :)
 
Small game camera aimed at the road to capture the license tag, no wifi needed. Put a decoy package in the mailbox at night, some kids toy car inside.
 
three ideas that have had success
with us and/or our neighbors:

1. get a PO box as previously suggested.
2. get another shipping address. our neighbor ships to her office.
3. in the evening put a "bait" package in, BUT take it out EVERY morning.
this worked for us ~11 years ago. no details...internet never forgets.
 
A buddy had this same thing happen to him in the late 90s. They were stopping car, reaching in, grabbing and go. He put a big bag full off dog sh## with a bunch of old razor blades in it. Next day it was gone and they didn't come back. Ymmv on this one but it worked for him
 
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Maybe something wired to the door like
fithops.com

12 Gauge Perimeter Trip Alarm

12 Gauge Perimeter Trip Alarm* Made of 6061 Aluminum, this unit utilizes a spring-loaded firing mechanism and a trip trigger. When the trigger is disturbed while loaded with a 12 gauge Flash Bang, the unit will discharge. This device is compatible with flares and pepper gas depending on...
fithops.com fithops.com
 
Well, went out this morning to my lid down and my flag up. Obviously they're screwing with me at this point but nothing I can really do. Its just nagging and annoying to me at this point.

I did post the video up on facebook and the lady down the road from me posted a video of an alleged drug deal. It's definitely the same truck. Even sounds like the same truck.

*This is not at my place*

 
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You
amnesia said:
Well, went out this morning to my lid down and my flag up. Obviously they're screwing with me at this point but nothing I can really do. Its just nagging and annoying to me at this airport!
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You need to up your game. Make a crap thrower. Mount it on a board that you can slide inside the box. Spring loaded and triggerd by opening the door.

Use your imagination for the rest.
 
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JimB said:
Wonder if they are using your box for something?
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Thought about it but I dont have any other video of people stopping. Honestly, I think they hit it and scored so they keep checking it. I also think they probably saw the facebook video is my guess and that brought them to the next level petty by leaving my flag up and my mailbox open
 
amnesia said:
Well, went out this morning to my lid down and my flag up. Obviously they're screwing with me at this point but nothing I can really do. Its just nagging and annoying to me at this point.

I did post the video up on facebook and the lady down the road from me posted a video of an alleged drug deal. It's definitely the same truck. Even sounds like the same truck.

*This is not at my place*

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You’d think if they were sneaking around, they wouldn’t use a straight piped ranger. Maybe they cut the cats out for cash though.
 
CarolinaColtCollector said:
You’d think if they were sneaking around, they wouldn’t use a straight piped ranger. Maybe they cut the cats out for cash though.
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I think applying logic to anyone on drugs is the problem. I doubt I trust them to be logical thinkers if they're stealing from mailboxes :D
 
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I would really consider getting a legit Amazon box, and carefully packing in a magnum load of dog poop sealed but connected to one of the box flaps. This could be fun! Remove before real mailman of course.

Maybe a rotten egg payload, etc...
 
JohnFreeman said:
I would really consider getting a legit Amazon box, and carefully packing in a magnum load of dog poop sealed but connected to one of the box flaps. This could be fun! Remove before real mailman of course.

Maybe a rotten egg payload, etc...
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We have pastures out front with horses. I don't want to provoke anyone for retaliation
 
JimB said:
Maybe something wired to the door like
fithops.com

12 Gauge Perimeter Trip Alarm

12 Gauge Perimeter Trip Alarm* Made of 6061 Aluminum, this unit utilizes a spring-loaded firing mechanism and a trip trigger. When the trigger is disturbed while loaded with a 12 gauge Flash Bang, the unit will discharge. This device is compatible with flares and pepper gas depending on...
fithops.com fithops.com
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Two of these mounted on the back of the post, one wire a bit longer so it sounds like a double tap when the door’s opened.
 
amnesia said:
We have pastures out front with horses. I don't want to provoke anyone for retaliation
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AND...thus endeth the lesson....you can't just stay home forever to watch your stuff.
Stuff by the way that You worked for. Stuff for Your family to enjoy. Shot or poisoned animals mean Nothing to people like this...or broken windows and slashed tires

To quote the Taliban ....You Americans all have watches...We Own the time.
 
amnesia said:
We have pastures out front with horses. I don't want to provoke anyone for retaliation
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That do change the game.

You might consider a cheap Blink camera. You can choose to enable a bright LED illuminator which might provide some deterrence without provoking retaliation.
 
Lighting is usually a good deterrent. Maybe something with motion detection. Can’t see that causing retaliation.
 
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