Well tonight i had a 4-H shooting meeting so we were gone from 5:30 to 8:30. My mom got home before dad and i did and called us. She said that we need to get home before it gets dark because they got our mailbox again. When we first moved in here, we are in the country about a half mile from town, somebody put a pipe bomb or something in our mailbox and blew it up. We had a chocolate lab pup that was supposed to be a hunting dog and she was home when it happened and it scared here good. Ever since then she has been afraid of any loud noises so she cant hunt at all, and is now just a couch potatoe. I figured somebody put another bomb in it and blew it up again tonight.

Turns out somebody drove by and threw a whiskey bottle at it. There was glass everywhere. In the road, on the bikepath in front of our house, in our yard, and in the driveway. There are a lot of people who walk the path from town out to the park next door with pets and little kids, and they could've gotten cut up from the big chunks of glass. Dad and I got home and the cop had already been out and talked to my mom because she left the meeting early. He said he had gone by before my mom got home and it was still up, so they wouldve had to basically passed a cop and my mom before they did it.

My family is familiar with people trying to either steal or destroy our mailboxes though. At our old house my dad was in the living room and saw a car stop out front at the mailbox late at night. Dad got up and went out front and saw some guy grab the mailbox and rip it off the post. Dad yelled at him and he threw it down and zipped off. After that dad put it back up, and put 3 inch wood screws in the board so they stuck out in case the guy came back. He would be hurting after he tried getting it again. My great uncle who lived about 5 minutes from our old house always had problems with people vandalizing his farm. There is a big creek that runs through his property and he has paths down to it so he can get gravel and stuff. A lot of people, including us, ride atvs in the creek and we usually start out at his house and ride from there down to the creek. For a while he had a big problem of people riding through the fields and cutting down into the creek. There were many times when people would ride up to his garage and steal tools and stuff late at night. He also had problems with people knocking his mailbox down. He got fed up with it all finally so he got some big boulders and made a fence along the road and down his driveway part way. At the end of the rocks he put up a big gate. Everything else is fenced off so if they try cutting through the fields they wont get anywhere. He took down his old mailbox, and concreted in a 6x6 and got basically a little bomb shelter of a mailbox. Next time somebody tries hitting it with a bat or something, it wont damage the mailbox but they will really be hurting. What i dont understand though is why people do it. Is it really fun or funny to go around and destroy peoples stuff? Why cant people respect other peoples property and just leave it alone? The really sad thing though is if we make our mailbox indestructible and somebody gets hurt if they try destroying it we will probably get in trouble. Its bad that im 15, and im more respectful, responsible, and more mature them somebody people a couple years older and some people twice my age. I guess im lucky that i have parents who actually taught me good morals and how to respect other people. If anybody on here thinks its fun to tear up other peoples stuff, just think if they did it to you. You probably wouldnt be to happy, would you? Just please think before you people do stuff to have fun.

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Like you said- the way we are raised matters alot. I had a friend in elementary school, but by eight grade, we weer no longer friends.
Eigth grade summer, this jerk came up to my house, went htrough our cars, leaving all the doors open, broke our bench, like those ones in parks, and destroyed a tree fort i had made.
WE found out it was him- i found out personaly- and my father went to talk to his parents. The parents didn't give a crap. Father just snorted it off.
Next time i saw him, he was on a go kart. I ran him down, on foot, and told him to never come around my mountian again. He was scared of me- so he never came up, ever again.

Society is falling into a lower status in my opinion. There are several things to blame. All i can think of how to fix it is, do your part. Don't be a jerk. I've curbed my naughty side. So can anyone else.

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Heres what you need to do for a mailbox. get a big mailbox and a small one put the small one in the big one and take the door off it. Then fill the area between the two with cement. Some pore sucker will try to drive by with a baseball bat and it will rip the bat right out of their hand.

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You should patent that. Good idea.

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That is a similar concept of what my uncle bought. Except in his i think its just solid metal. Its pretty heavy and sturdy. You can knock on it and it just makes a thud. But we will do something if they mess with the mailbox again. The township put it in for us in the fall when they put in the bike path, so its pretty new. The ground was soft from the rain yesterday so it just moved the post back, and the top of the mailbox popped off. You cant really tell it was hit, so we will just keep using it for now and maybe do something this summer.

What sucks about what they did this time though was since it was a glass bottle it shattered into tiny pieces for the most part. Im not sure if the cop could get any fingerprints off of it, and there were probably no witnesses so we will most likely never know who it is. When they blew up our mailbox they either were able to find fingerprints, or somebody turned them in but i know they got in trouble. At least nothing was really damaged this time, and nobody got hurt from the glass. Hopefully somebody turns them in but since there is really no damage they probably wont get in trouble.

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About three weeks ago we had a couple kids from around here that were blowing up mutiple mail boxs with artilery shells. They got into tons of trouble. I belive one of them was even kicked out of the Army for it.

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tdg, you got it right man. Parenting is the answer. The ones who don't give a **** and basically let their kids get away with murder are bad enough. My problem with our society now is that we have put so much power into children's hands.

I was spanked as a child. Call the police, the FBI, and CPS! This is the mentality that people have now, that it is ILLEGAL to physically discipline your child. Spanking your child, supposedly, is mentally and emotionally scarring and prevents them from maturing correctly. Now I have friends that were raised just like me and we're all very level headed and we make good decisions for the most part. Not everyone was spanked, but they were disciplined for negative actions and decisions that they made. Those who weren't are complete and utter **** ups.

The other problem is that we're putting so much weight on the word of these kids. From stories I've heard, all a child would have to do is call the police and tell them they had been hit, and the cops would show up and arrest on the spot. No questions asked. You're read your rights and put in the back of the squad car and driven off. We had a parent get arrested a couple years ago because his daughter thought it would be a "funny prank" to call the cops and accuse him.

I substitute teach in my town and have had 2 incidents where I've had to intervene. The first was a fight where two male students got heated and started throwing punches. I got over and broke it up, and was blocking the path of one of the students so he couldn't follow the other. He (a 9th grader, mind you) got in my face and yelled "Man, you don't want to do that. You don't know what I'm like right now!" I flat out asked him "Are you going to hit me?" He gave a shocked answer of, "well, no!" I told him to shut up and sit down.

During his "post fight interview" he claimed I used unnecessary force against him. Thankfully for cameras, he was caught in a lie. The balls of a kid to try to get a teacher in trouble, just so the attention would be taken off of him for a second. Every time I see the kid, I politely say hello and smile.

That same day I came up on a student with Silly String in the hall and he was spraying it everywhere. Since I was in no mood for bull****, I walked up behind him and told him to give me the cans. He turned away from me and walked away. I caught up to him, put my hand on his shoulder, and asked again for the silly string, this time identifying myself as an employee.

He looks at me, and said "get your hand off of me, or I'll report you." I looked down, grabbed my coaching jacket, showed him my name, and told him I'd walk right down with him to the principal. He put the silly string in my hand and walked away. Never heard a thing from anyone.

My point is that kids aren't used to someone in an authoritative position responding with any type of force, even if it's mental. They're so used to getting their way and having this power over teachers and parents that, basically, they could ruin your life with one phone call. In reality, most of the kids are too scared to follow through with any type of action. It's pathetic...

My mother is a chaperone for our school's Ski Club. One week this year, they had a student who didn't show up for his morning lesson, which is a requirement of the club. Each student must attend a lesson for 7 of the 8 weeks, the last week being a free ride day for the kids. The student was found, his ticket was removed, and he was instructed to sit inside with the on-duty chaperone. The student cursed my mother and the director of the club out, caused a scene, and was finally calmed down enough to sit inside.

The next day, my mother and the ski club director were called into the principal's office for a meeting with the student and his mother. The mother wanted the director FIRED because he SINGLED OUT her son, who was sitting next to her very quietly looking very sheepish. When he brought up and described her son's actions, she was horrified that he would do such a thing, and claimed that she wasn't informed of this by her son. She didn't raise him to talk to his superiors in that manner...........

And she's in the office asking for the director's head on a stick. ****ing ridiculous!!!!!

My last example, again from my high school: A kid had an open harrassment charge against a teacher. The student claimed that the female students in his class were uncomfortable with the way he looked at them. Basically, the kid didn't like the teacher and decided this was a good way to get back at him.

First off, the charge was investigated, even though this teacher had been there for 30 years and has never had an incident.

Second off, not one single girl stepped forward to confirm the claim.

Third off, the teacher is also the boys tennis coach. The student signed up for tennis, and the Principal ALLOWED him to be able to try out. Didn't matter that the open harrassment case was being reviewed by the school board!

That's called empowerment. And that is my point. I could go on all night with examples from what I've seen and heard while substituting. It sickens me to the point that I want to become a school principal just to bring some balls back into the administration at my school...

MAN this gets me goin lol

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Man you guys got bad luck with stuff over there, did your family piss anyone off?

We had a group of kids do some stupid stuff like that around here and they all got charged with a felony for tampering with federal property.

I dont know what joy people get out of this but its ridiculous.

Didnt some guy get sued because he put concrete in his mailbox because people kept on smashing it and one of the kids ended up getting hurt because he put concrete in there?

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You guys hit it right on the head!!! The kids (some of them) around here are ridiculous!! Sure, I got into trouble when I was younger, but not to the extent that they do now days. That's really sad that the parents don't even care what happens to their children!! These people that are giving these kids so much power over their parents need to realize it's not working. Parents NEED to be able to punish their kids (within reason). My parents punished me when I deserved it and I'll be the first to admit that I DID deserve it....and the doctor says I'm fine!! It's just going to get worse in the future!!

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isnt a Federal crime to mess with mail and mailboxes??

I remember a guy telling me the neighbor kid that turned 16 kept hitting his garbage cans in the alley, denting them.
He talked to the Father, "Not my kid"

So one weeekend when they where gone, he dug a hole, threw a 4 inch pipe in it, filled hole and pipe with concrete. Put the garbage can over the top.

Yep the next week the kid ran into it, smack, wrecked the front end. the father came over and chewed his butt, the guy said, but it wasnt "YOUR KID"

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thats pretty funny

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A while ago some kids threw a hole bunch of lit fireworks at the end of our driveway. Didn't do anything since the driveway is 900 ft long and its in the middle of nowhere but I just wondered why. What happened to the wooden spoon? that thing could teach anyone right from wrong.

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I had my mailbox smashed at least 3 times and then I fixed the problem. I was then a service tech for a large equipment manufacturer, and had access to steel. I bought a piece of 6x6 or 8x8 steel heavy wall tubing and welded a back, and a hinged door on it. The box itself weighs 50+ pounds. If someone wacks this one with a ball bat, their arm will vibrate for a month.

no more damage in 15 years.....

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As good as it would feel to get a little payback DO NOT do the cement trick. Sure, you can build your mail box out of the heaviest gauge steel you want, and then stick it into a cement footing, however, if you fill your mailbox with cement and someone is seriously injured, PRE-MEDITATED my friend. As F-ed up as that sounds it's true. Your parents insurance company could get sued or worse. Once you are dropped from a homeowners policy it's very hard to find someone to offer you coverage. Once you do, the premiums will be crazy expensive!
This is why a lot of people fence in their property. Trespassing or not, once someone is on your property they are the policy holders responsibility PERIOD.
Sorry about the vandalism BTW....It's just a fact of life, good people or bad, we need to function around both groups whether we like it or not.

Good Luck!

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Sucks, some idiots broke into my sisters place yesterday and took quite a bit of small things, jewelery, cameras and about $500 in change that was in an empty water jug.

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Back when I was a kid(a long time ago) we had some local teenagers taking out our mailbox at least 3 times a week. My dad finally had enough, Sat out in the woods with a 30-30 rifle and a 12 gage shotgun with slugs. Sure enough here they come. No more motor or glass left in their car. It IS a federal offense messing with a mail box. Each one of the kids got 1 year in jail( they were 17 years old with a history).
I don't think you could get away with that know a days.
If I ever tried anything like that, my ass would be so sore I wouldn't be able to sit for a month.
Kids today get away with so much crap it's scary. 99% of it is the parents fault because they don't care.
Just think, thats what will be running our country the next generation.


Plus, my youngest son's house got cleaned out this last weekend while he was gone. Took every electronic item in his house. Hope they catch the bastards. He had all of the serial numbers with the insurance.

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Not that i dont agree with you, but dont you think when you were a kid the "older" generation wasnt saying the same thing? Everything works in circles..

I keep inventory on my computer of EVERYTHING i own. I keep receipts and everything just incase something like that happens to me. I have also taken a picture of my things. All of which took me about an hour to organize and could possible save me thousands.

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Weve been lucky out here and we havent really had many problems with vandalism or people breaking into houses. Typically the only times the cops are called out here are when our fires get to big, we are to loud, or we have fireworks. But its always the newer neighbor that lives down the road that calls the cops on us, and the cops tell us just to be safe. Hopefully its just a one time thing with our mailbox. But when we first moved in we didnt know anybody out here so its not like we had enemies that wanted to blow up our mailbox. Who knows who it was or why they did it though.

I know if i did something like this id lose all riding privileges from sleds or quads, I wouldn't get my lisence till im 18, and probably lose the PC and tv in my room. When i was younger i dont know how many times my dad had whipped me or smacked me when i did something disrespectful. For a couple years it seemed like i was always getting whipped, but i learned quick to respect him. Im 6 years younger then my brother, and he has my dads temper so they were always fighting and i dont know how many times ive seen my dad make my brother cry. Needless to say my dad and i havent really argued a whole lot. Ive learned that if i get in trouble at school or break a serious law, im gonna pay for it. Its sad thought because there are kids at school that get 20-30 detentions a year, failing most of their classes, get suspended a couple times a year, and their parents dont care. I got a C in gym and my parents freaked out(i cant jump or do push ups well). Heck, last year in eight grade 3 kids got drunk in school and i dont think their parents cared or punished them. Im glad that when i was younger my dad disciplined me and raised me right because i learned what to do and what not to do, some people just shouldnt be parents.

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Bingo!!!! lol

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A good part of the problem, is that parents are just couch potatoes, and let their kids run wild and learn from their friends and TV instead of being role models for their children.

Too much 24, and not enough 24 hour parenting.

And ^^^^^^^

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I live on a lake with a nice boat launch area every time the town tries to do somthing to improve it, certain kids in the neighborhood will destroy it,these kids a product of there fathers who are complete morons My kids are the same age both make the honor roll every year and have jobs .These punk kids will probbly live with there parents forever because they will never result to anything.

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I see so much stuff around here that makes me think "wow, do these people have ANY common sence"

Russell Peters explains this pretty good lol.

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its a federal offense? oh. i was going to smash the hell out of this kids mail box, because he would always makes fun of me for being poor. which i am not, i am just very very low middle class, probably the lowest middle class there is, but its not like i live in a box. he is just extremely rich. i was actually planning on doing it soon, i guess i wont be doing that now. thanks for a heads up.

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