Mail Box Damage - Dave's Midwestern Ohio Memories

Series of Guest Blogs by an out-of-state Fish Report reader originally from this area about fond memories of growing up in Midwestern Ohio during the 50’s & 60’s

Mail Box Damage

Our mailbox was knocked off its post recently as shown in the photo above and the incident reminded me about frequent damage to Dad’s mailbox located at the end of our long lane on Friemering Road west of Ft. Loramie shown below.

Dad and his brother Bob who lived on the farm across the road from us were always frustrated to have their mailboxes damaged. The road was an alternate route between Minster and Ft. Loramie that avoided the busier and more patrolled SR 66. So kids cruising between the two towns would tend to use that route.

The typical damage was incurred by flying beer bottles, cherry bombs or someone accidentally hitting the mailbox with their vehicle. Anytime something happened, Dad or Uncle Bob would chase after the hooligans. One time Dad caught up with the car that had blown up our mailbox on the 4th of July and discovered the driver to be the son of our milkman, a close friend of Dad’s, so the kid was let go but not before Dad “confiscated” the fireworks. Our family had quite a 4th of July show later that evening! On another incident, Uncle Bob also tracked down some kids who had damaged his mailbox and discovered one of them in the car was his niece. Needless to say, soft hearted Uncle Bob let them go as well.

A few years later while taking a welding class in college, as my project, I welded up a metal mailbox as a Fathers Day gift for Dad. It was somewhat crude, heavy but very effective, as it would repel any beer bottle and withstand a cherry bomb. My friends and I in the welding class had even tested it to make sure! Dad mounted it on a steel post cemented in place, so that mailbox could survive anything. His best Father's Day gift ever, so he claimed!

As a teenager myself, I can recall doing some damage to mailboxes, mostly throwing empty beer bottles at the target with my friends before heading to Eagle Park in Minster for their infamous Friday night dances as documented in this past blog. One night around 1:00 am after Eagles, I must have fallen asleep at the wheel and hit a mailbox myself. Had it been a bridge abutment instead, you wouldn’t be reading this blog right now!

Regarding my current mailbox damage, a neighbor was walking her dog and noticed the garbage truck had stopped at the end of our driveway even though she knew we had no garbage since we were wintering in Florida. She then noticed the downed mailbox and sent me an email about what she saw. Since the garbage company GFL is contracted by the City, I called our City Manager about the damage and he promised to investigate the matter. A day or so later, an official from GFL called me and indicated they interviewed the two workers on the truck and both corroborated that the mailbox had been damaged prior to their arrival and was laying in the street so it had to be moved aside before they could get by.

Given that testimony, I checked our front camera doorbell as the mailbox can be seen from that view. Unfortunately, the doorbell camera can only record events when motion is sensed near the front door or when the doorbell is pushed, so that was no help. Our neighbors have a security camera facing their front yard and perhaps their camera caught something. Once the neighbors checked, the garbage truck had indeed hit the mailbox as shown in the still photo above.

The caretaker who checks our place weekly while we are gone also was dispatched to the scene to temporarily repair the mailbox. He did a quick and dirty fix as shown above and later came back to make a more palatable fix before I got a blight ticket. While remounting the mailbox, he noticed several witness marks on the door of the mailbox with the same green paint color as the garbage truck. Further confirming the situation, our mailbox has a sensor inside that sends us a signal when the mailbox door is opened so we know when the mail has arrived. At the exact moment the truck hit the mailbox on the security camera video time-log, we received a text alert. So with that evidence in hand, the City Manager was again asked to intervene on our behalf. He reviewed the “evidence” with the Police Department and agreed to escalate the matter to GFL, so we’re waiting for the next shoe to drop. At this stage it’s a matter of principle.

Blame my stubborn determination on such matters to my Dad!

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