4 Tips for Preventing Community Mailbox Vandalism
Pity your poor community mailbox. Left alone outside with several flat and mostly featureless surfaces, it’s a sitting duck for vandals. Whatever the vandals’ reasons—tagging, looking for free stuff, or simply feeling destructive—unprotected community mailboxes can face an onslaught of spray paint, stickers, scratches, and smashes. Here are four tips for preventing community mailbox vandalism. Employ them to keep your mailbox looking good and safe from the local barbarians.
Buy the Toughest Box Available
Manufacturers build most traditional CBU mailboxes to be tough. They need to be resistant to the ravages of the weather, sun, thieves, and other destructive things. However, some are tougher than others. It might be time to get a reinforced mailbox if your mailbox experiences regular vandalism. The best ones consist of steel, galvanized bolts, and powerful locks that can take a beating and even survive being hit by a vehicle. Make sure the installation team sets the mailbox firmly into the ground if it’s on a centra post. This type of mailbox and installation might cost a little more, but it’s better than replacing a less sturdy box every few months.
Light It Up!
Mailboxes, just like doors and windows, become less attractive to thieves and vandals if they’re well-lit. Too much light on their activities helps draw the attention they don’t want, from you, your tenants, or the police. Motion-activated lights are especially startling for vandals and may frighten them off before they begin their work.
Candid Camera
It’s easier than ever to install a camera and have it send images to your monitoring screens or smartphone. Training a single camera on your mailbox can dissuade vandals and others from lingering and attempting to break in or disfigure the box. You can use recordings as evidence in legal proceedings if it comes to that. Otherwise, consider posting signs that fib about the presence of cameras if you don’t have the budget for a surveillance system. Spontaneous vandals may reconsider their actions if they think you’re watching.
Community (Mailbox) Watch
Here’s the last of our four tips for preventing community mailbox vandalism. Ask your tenants and neighbors to keep an eye on the box and report any criminal activity if they see it. With everybody watching, vandals are less likely to act. Having a community mailbox watch also helps you maintain good relations with the community. Neighborhood kids, for instance, are less likely to damage the property of someone they know and who looks out for them.
Be sure to report any vandalism to the local post office if your community mailbox does experience it. They will be very interested in investigating as it’s a federal crime to damage mailboxes.