Secure postal mailbox needed - There is mail theft on my st

[desidude]

Hello friends,

I hope everyone is doing well. I am wondering if any of you have suggestions for a secure/semi secure postal mail box.

There have been instances of mail theft in the street where my parents' new home is, by possibly one of the neighbors.

I want to get one of those secure mailboxes, which have a lock, and prevent, to the best ability possibly, someone from putting their hands inside and pulling out the mail.

Since all of you are experts on security, I was hoping someone could please help.

Let me know if I can provide additional information.

Thank you,

[liffa]

Buy a small safe and cut a slot with a die grinder.

[Squelchtone]

[EDIT: Post moved from Ask Beginner Hobby Lockpicking Questions to Questions from the Public - What lock should I buy?]

Liffa... do you mean like a Sentry combination lock safe with a slot cut into it? I think that would draw a lot of attention to someone's house if there was a safe suddenly sitting on the side of the street accepting mail.

OP: that brings up a good question, is your parents mailbox the typical American plastic/aluminum mailbox on the side of the road or is it mounted to the porch at the house by the front door?

They make locking mailboxes, just look on Google Shopping or Amazon for locking mailbox or security mailbox:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_ ... ty+mailbox


Here's a $200 dollar one, which can be upgraded to have a Medeco high security locks:
http://www.steelmailbox.com/html/fort_k ... steel.html

Here's a $40 dollars one you can get which is less armored and looks more like a classic mailbox
http://www.hayneedle.com/product/solar- ... ailbox.cfm

Or your folks could have their mail held for pick up at the post office for a little while or even get a PO Box if the mail theft is severe. It wouldn't hurt to stop by your local post office and ask them which locking mailbox *they* recommend

Squelchtone

PS. we pick locks for fun as a hobby, and can only offer suggestions based on the same Google searches you can do yourself, but thank you for thinking we are all experts on security.

[MatrixBlackRock]

There have been instances of mail theft in the street where my parents' new home is, by possibly one of the neighbors.

Thank you,

In addition to what has already been posted I would suggest you contact the Postal Inspectors Office, while local law enforcement may consider the theft of mail to be a simple property crime the Postal Inspectors consider it to be a serious federal offence

https://postalinspectors.uspis.gov/inve ... Theft.aspx

Wayne

[jimu57]

Set up a game camera and catch him in the act.

[MBI]

I had a problem with my mailman throwing away my mail.
Postal inspectors wouldn't do a thing since the suspect was one of their own.
Solved it by getting a commercial PO box at one of those business/copy/shipping centers.
It's much more useful than a regular PO box because you can also receive commercially delivered packages there, like UPS, FedEx, etc and on paper LOOKS like a physical address.

OP, what country are you in? This type of information is useful when asking for help. The "location" field is there on user profiles for a reason.

[billdeserthills]

I got a mailbox at the post office, cost is low and your mail is secure

[desidude]

Hi friends,

I am in the Houston, TX area in the great USA!

One of my neighbors on the street reported the issue to the Postal Inspectors office, and even got photos of the culprits in the act. However, he did not get the license plate number.

He believes the culprits could be on the neighbors who live down the street. This is a small ranch style community, so the houses are spread apart and there are just a handful on every street.

The images are his property, although he did mail out a copy to everyone on the street. I do not know if he has followed up with the postal inspector and let the postal inspector know that he may know the identity of the thieves.

I presume I do anything because those images are his, or else I would have posted them on social media etc. And maybe he does not want to upset the thieves if they are neighbors, oh well.

I don't want to have my mail delivered to the post office or the commercial mailbox, because sometimes it gets difficult to get there everyday, and who knows when an important piece of mail has arrived. I know some of these commercial places do daily scans of the incoming mail, but getting the mail from them can take a day or two.

I need a mailbox that has a lock and also one in which the thief cannot just put in their hand and take out the mail through the slot.

One example is this one, but it still seems that there is enough room to slide the hand through, thus I was hoping for something more secure.

http://www.amazon.com/Mail-Boss-7506-Manager-Security/dp/B008HVH502/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1462493771&sr=8-1&keywords=locking+mailbox

Any thoughts please?

desidude

[billdeserthills]

16 guage metal will not stand up long to a hammer. I think if you really want a strong mailbox, I would start out with a perma-vault maybe the PV-27, with a deposit slot, and find a way to make it ok to use as a mailbox, maybe by riviting that little flag on it that the mailman quit using years ago. That perma vault will take a few blows with a baseball bat and maybe a hammer. You could always upgrade to the Safe & Vault store's model MS-2K undercounter cash safe, it looks very stable.

[Squelchtone]

One example is this one, but it still seems that there is enough room to slide the hand through, thus I was hoping for something more secure.

http://www.amazon.com/Mail-Boss-7506-Manager-Security/dp/B008HVH502/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1462493771&sr=8-1&keywords=locking+mailbox

Any thoughts please?

desidude

What do you mean any thoughts please? Did you not see all of our replies???

Buy a Fort Knox mailbox for $215.00 plus
OPTIONAL ABLOY Lock with 2 Keys $44.10
OPTIONAL Medeco Lock with 2 Keys $44.10

see my reply above for the link.

Squelchtone

[GWiens2001]

This should do the trick...



Gordon

[bitbuster]

I had a problem with my mailman throwing away my mail.
Postal inspectors wouldn't do a thing since the suspect was one of their own.
Solved it by getting a commercial PO box at one of those business/copy/shipping centers.
It's much more useful than a regular PO box because you can also receive commercially delivered packages there, like UPS, FedEx, etc and on paper LOOKS like a physical address.

OP, what country are you in? This type of information is useful when asking for help. The "location" field is there on user profiles for a reason.

That sucks. Either the PIs are not doing their jobs or they are getting more info on your mailman and he may be shadowed on his route.I know that if I had taken a gift card from an envelope during my 30 years at the PO I would have been cuffed and walked out of the building.I witnessed several people walked out.Some were temps and others were regulars. Each envelope is a separate count of theft.Jail time,fines, and loss of job and pension.

[desidude]

Hello friends,

@bitbuster - The theft is being conducted by a couple, one male and female in their 50s. It is believed that they may be one of the neighbors, but I am not sure.

I hope some action is taken against them as this has been going on for a long time.

desidude

[Joshua904]

I was waiting to see if you'd post more info like the location of the mailbox before tossing this out here.
Shock the bastards.
If it was behind a fence, or on the house it would be completely legal. As long as a innocent person couldn't accidentally come in contact with it (like running an electric fence wire on the length of fence in front of your home where a side walk is - and a kid going to school might touch.
But since you said rural, I'm assuming long driveway, standard mail box at the end of it... but being rural I'm sure someone has an electric fence transformer

What time of day do these people normally steal the mail?

[Squelchtone]

I was waiting to see if you'd post more info like the location of the mailbox before tossing this out here.
Shock the bastards.
If it was behind a fence, or on the house it would be completely legal. As long as a innocent person couldn't accidentally come in contact with it (like running an electric fence wire on the length of fence in front of your home where a side walk is - and a kid going to school might touch.
But since you said rural, I'm assuming long driveway, standard mail box at the end of it... but being rural I'm sure someone has an electric fence transformer

What time of day do these people normally steal the mail?

What's the going federal prison term for electrocuting a postal mail carrier by accident?