Ignoramus5275 wrote:

I have been reading about fortress mailboxes (a topic raised here). A
couple of conclusions:

1. At least in some places, and possibly but not necessarily, near
highways, fortress mailboxes may be illegal. Call your building and
zoning department to find out.

2. I doubt the morality of installing a fortress mailbox (but I am not
certain). Two cases come to mind:

- a few years ago, near my old house, a car swerved off a road due to
ice and was almost buried in a huge pile of snow in my yard. The
teenager in it was very apologetic and I dragged his car out with my
pickup. He did not have any ill intention, he was simply an
inexperienced driver on an icy road.

- Last year, same thing happened in my new house, very near my
mailbox. Some bad young driver hit a big pile of snow that I made,
stopping inches away from my mailbox. That was during a sunny day with
me in my yard. Surely it was not intentional. I would rather have him
knock my mailbox down than suffer any meaningful damage. Especially
since he was my neighbor.

Unless I had a repeating problem with mailbox vandalism, I would
definitely not install a fortress mailbox.

If I had such a problem, I would keep a wimpy breakable mailbox, but
would perhaps make the first 8-12" or so off the ground to be made of
something very strong, like a large I beam or some such, to damage the
vehicle, but not the occupant. Around that, I would install a fake
fortress made of plastic that looks like bricks (sold as room decor at
Home Depot), to make the mailbox an unattractive target.

If some vandal hits your mailbox, dies, and you lose thousands in
court, you are not a winner in the situation. If an unfortunate driver
dies, there would be a moral guilt element in addition to the court
judgment.

i

Add to that thought that even when the vandalism is intentional many
such young punks grow out of their foolishness and become productive
citizens -- sometimes above-average productive citizens. Since there's
really no way of knowing when they're whacking your mailbox whether
they're turds or just good kids being thoughtless and stupid you should
be careful of going to any extremes.

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com