Help! Package mailbox key vandalism!

[Shesaknitter]

Hi everyone,

We are getting desperate at my condo community and I thought I would come to the experts (you folks!) to see if this is a problem that can be solved.

About a year ago, someone broke off the keys of our package mailboxes. There are two, and it is one of those systems where the mailman leaves a key in your individual mailbox if you have a package too large to fit there. You use that package mailbox key to to retrieve your package. The key then box stays in the lock until the next time a package is placed there by the postman, who leaves that key in your box, and so on.

It took almost a year for the property manager to have a locksmith come out to rekey those boxes. Now, maybe a month later, someone has again broken off the keys so we have to go to the post office to get our packages now.

I am posting my query here at Lock Picking 101 to find out if there is any alternative mailbox/key design that would solve this problem for us? Is there some sort of key that cannot be broken off? Or maybe some other design altogether that would preclude us having this type of problem?

I would so appreciate knowing of any product that would solve this problem for us because what we have now is just not going to work, no matter how many times we pay a locksmith to come.

I am in the U.S. so it would need to be something available here. But even if it is sold elsewhere, if I know what to look for, that would be great.

Many thanks ahead of time, to anyone who might have seen this problem before and who might be able to recommend something.

[MacGyver101]

The answer depends a bit on whether you think it's being done on purpose or by accident.

If the breakage is happening by accident, then there are a number of camlocks (e.g., Medeco Duracam or BiLock) that are designed to have keys that are much more robust than standard cheap mailbox keys... but they come at a cost. (They also come with some other significant advantages, though... it would be much harder, for example, for your neighbours to take the key and have a duplicate made.)

Either way, it would seem better to modify the large boxes: suggest that your property manager cut a small slot in the front (perhaps with a flap, to prevent people from peering inside), and have people deposit the key into the box once they retrieve the contents -- rather than leaving the keys hanging in the locks. (I'm presuming that you have the usual setup, where your mailman has the ability to access the inside of the boxes without needing individual keys for each one.)

[wery67564]

Surveillance camera may provide long term benefits and may pitentially detect whether e problem is one of manufacture or vandalism.

[keysman]

Leave the package box keys in the package box.. when the mailperson delivers a package he/ she can drop the package box key in your normal letter box.

[GWiens2001]

The locks in my post office for the package retrieval boxes are key retaining. From what the OP is saying, it sounds the same for him. Therefore, once they open the box to retrieve their package, they can not remove the key to place into a slot. The postman's key, when he uses it, releases the retained key, if I understand it correctly.

Also, if multiple keys are being broken off at the same time, as the description seems to say, it is vandalism. As Wery says, a surveilance camera is probably in order.

Gordon

[Shesaknitter]

Leave the package box keys in the package box.. when the mailperson delivers a package he/ she can drop the package box key in your normal letter box.

Thanks so much for responding. What you describe is actually how it works now. The problem occurs when we put that package mailbox key into the lock, it stays in the lock - can't be removed, except by the mailman. So the key sits there, sticking out, and I am sure that it and the key to the other mailbox (there are two of them) are being broken or cut off on purpose by someone who just can't resist the opportunity to vandalize.

[Shesaknitter]

The answer depends a bit on whether you think it's being done on purpose or by accident.

If the breakage is happening by accident, then there are a number of camlocks (e.g., Medeco Duracam or BiLock) that are designed to have keys that are much more robust than standard cheap mailbox keys... but they come at a cost. (They also come with some other significant advantages, though... it would be much harder, for example, for your neighbours to take the key and have a duplicate made.)

Either way, it would seem better to modify the large boxes: suggest that your property manager cut a small slot in the front (perhaps with a flap, to prevent people from peering inside), and have people deposit the key into the box once they retrieve the contents -- rather than leaving the keys hanging in the locks. (I'm presuming that you have the usual setup, where your mailman has the ability to access the inside of the boxes without needing individual keys for each one.)

..................
I am sure that the keys are being cut off or broken off on purpose. The keys once inserted into those mailboxes cannot be removed except by the postman, who pulls them out and puts them in the recipient's individual mailbox at the point when the mail is delivered. In other words, the mail recipient can insert the key into the package mailbox, but can't pull it out. Only the postman can do that.

I will share the information in this post with our property manager...she is going to talk to the locksmith again and maybe your ideas will help them come up with something that will work better. Many thanks for your response!

[Shesaknitter]

Surveillance camera may provide long term benefits and may pitentially detect whether e problem is one of manufacture or vandalism.

Thanks so much for responding. It may come to cameras, but the Board already had to have our gate set up with security cameras after repeated vandalism there. The cameras do seem to have solved the problem there. I don't know if they want to do that again just yet, though.

Funny about this neighborhood....someone left their keys on top of one of the recycling dumpsters and they sat out there for a week! I left my keys in my own mailbox one time....house keys with the security remote and everything...one of the neighbors saved them for me. Another time my garage door opener must have developed a short or something and I arrived home on three different occasions where the door was sitting open when I got home! Nothing bothered. I feel perfectly safe here, but this thing with the mailboxes is very perplexing.

And since the mailbox keys are only sitting in those pkg. mailbox doors when nothing is in the boxes, it really poses no risk to anyone's packages. It is really more that it is just a nuisance!

[Shesaknitter]

Leave the package box keys in the package box.. when the mailperson delivers a package he/ she can drop the package box key in your normal letter box.

Thanks for responding!

That idea won't work because the key, once used to open the mailbox, stays in the lock and cannot be removed except by the mailman.

[Shesaknitter]

The locks in my post office for the package retrieval boxes are key retaining. From what the OP is saying, it sounds the same for him. Therefore, once they open the box to retrieve their package, they can not remove the key to place into a slot. The postman's key, when he uses it, releases the retained key, if I understand it correctly.

Also, if multiple keys are being broken off at the same time, as the description seems to say, it is vandalism. As Wery says, a surveilance camera is probably in order.

Gordon

Thanks, Gordon. Yes, what you described is exactly how it works. I must remember that phrase: key retaining.

From the responses here, it looks as if our only option maybe indeed BE getting security cameras!

[GWiens2001]

Especially since cameras have solved the vandalism problem at the front gate. If I were management, it would seem less like an imposition than a viable, proven solution.

Good luck, Shesaknitter,

Gordon

[Evan]

Hi everyone,

We are getting desperate at my condo community and I thought I would come to the experts (you folks!) to see if this is a problem that can be solved.

About a year ago, someone broke off the keys of our package mailboxes. There are two, and it is one of those systems where the mailman leaves a key in your individual mailbox if you have a package too large to fit there. You use that package mailbox key to to retrieve your package. The key then box stays in the lock until the next time a package is placed there by the postman, who leaves that key in your box, and so on.

It took almost a year for the property manager to have a locksmith come out to rekey those boxes. Now, maybe a month later, someone has again broken off the keys so we have to go to the post office to get our packages now.

I am posting my query here at Lock Picking 101 to find out if there is any alternative mailbox/key design that would solve this problem for us? Is there some sort of key that cannot be broken off? Or maybe some other design altogether that would preclude us having this type of problem?

I would so appreciate knowing of any product that would solve this problem for us because what we have now is just not going to work, no matter how many times we pay a locksmith to come.

I am in the U.S. so it would need to be something available here. But even if it is sold elsewhere, if I know what to look for, that would be great.

Many thanks ahead of time, to anyone who might have seen this problem before and who might be able to recommend something.

@Shesaknitter:

Your problems with this issue appear to be multi-layered in nature...

First, it took so long for the property manager to respond to the issue...

Second, it reoccurred almost immediately after it was resolved...

There are many types of cluster box units for postal customers, including a few different configurations of the parcel lockers...

It would be excellent if you could take a couple of photos showing the type of cluster box unit your complex has installed as well as the parcel lockers showing where the keys have been broken off...

The only solution here which will eliminate future problems with the mailboxes would be installing a CCTV camera to cover the area around the boxes so that the vandal can be prosecuted for any further tampering...

~~ Evan

[Shesaknitter]

Thanks, Evan! I sent her the suggestions I've received so far, and she promises to get right on it, and normally she is pretty good about attending to problems - that earlier slowness in getting in the new keys was an anomaly.

Yesterday she said she'll work with the locksmith to come up with something, showing him the posts/ideas I got in response to my query.

I really appreciate all of this help. Wish me luck and best wishes.

[Shesaknitter]

Good luck, Shesaknitter,

Gordon[/quote]

Thanks, again, Gordon!

[GWiens2001]

No problem. Keep knitting!