Picking MailBox

[Inferior]

The thread I put before was deleted, the reason i asked how to pick a mailbox was because I lost my key to my mailbox. Suggestions?

[Kayvon]

Talk to your post office. As much as I've looked at the lock on my mailbox with intrigue, I would never dare touch the thing. It's a federal offense to mess with a mailbox, even if it is "yours."
Just get a new key for the thing. It's not feasible to pick it every time you want to check your mail, anyway.

[hzatorsk]

(Personal advice... NOT legal Advice)

The post office does not OWN personal mailboxes. They will not provide you a mailbox should you build a new home on an empty lot... nor does ownership transfer to them once you install the one you bought yourself at Home Depot.

If it is YOUR mailbox...

...Meaning that own the responsibility to maintain it and that it does not belong to your landlord, leaseholder, neighborhood community, or is shared with other households, etc...

Call the post office.... tell them to hold your mail a couple of days and that you are servicing your mailbox. Take the thing down to work on it IN YOUR HOUSE. Effect your repair and put it back.

Not a big deal.

Federal laws for mailbox 'tampering' do not apply to your own private property unless perhaps it causes a safety hazard for the postal workers.

[master in training]

im from the UK, so we just have a letter box in our door (a hole through the door with a flap either side) so i have no idea what the mail box lock looks like or how to pick it. i will make one guess that no-one will tell you how to pick it though, think about it from our point of view, we tell you how to pick it, you open your mail box, everyones happy, then some 12 year old comes along, reads how to open it, goes to their neighbour and sets fire to their mail every day for a week. we then get the police asking why we told people how to open it. so you see its not a good thing realy, so you wont find many people on here telling you how to open things like mail boxes, vending machines etc.

how do we know you're not the 12 year old arsonist either? we know you by a username and the quality of 2 posts you've made, we dont even have a clue where on the earth you are, its just not a good idea for us to tell everyone everything they ask straight away. imagine if you were on the receiving end of someone messing with your mail, you'd be first to complain that we told everyone what they wanted to know without question.

if you do not know how to pick locks, i would guess you'd have no hope of picking it either, its not something where you just stick a pick in a lock and it pops open, it takes years of practise.

my advice would be one of a few things, you could take a drill to your lock, destroy it in your workshop and then go buy another lock and put it in to replace it. you could go to your local locksmith and ask him to cut you a key for the lock, or replace it for you. your final option is to go to a shop like home depot and buy a new mailbox then sell your old one on ebay or something if you feel like it!

these are just how i view the problem, others may disagree with my views or have better ideas, but heres my contribution!

~ Master in Training ~

[Chris B]

[master in training]

we also have the hole-in-the-door type, like this:

its the gold thing 1/2 way down the door by the way

every house i've seen around here has the type that goes through the door, i've never seen the actual metal box type like chris showed.

[vector40]

Yeah, if everyone had boxes, what would you do on the 3:00 AM residential lockout call when you want to be out of there in five minutes?

[omelet]

i have a mailbox lock from an apartment building, and it is a basic 5 pin tumbler with no security pins. regular ol stuff

[master in training]

i wouldnt mind getting some of the american locks, like mailbox locks that are weird or those payphone locks that they stopped using a while ago after some guy picked loads of them and ripped off public telephones. cant remember the name of them, but apparently they're quite high security.

[Elijah]

I also might add that the US Postal Service DOES in fact own your mailbox if you live in the United States. You have no right to take the mailbox when you leave, tamper with the lock (by picking it - even if it is in your front yard), or wilfully damage it.

Just google something about mailboxes and the USPS. It's not hard to find out. In fact, a good majority of mailboxes even say "Property of the US Postal Service."

[master in training]

i would assume there is some sort of law, like you can buy yourself a mail box and send the usps one back to them or just not use it, or when you build a house, just not get one, then if you move and take yours with you, the next person could apply for one or buy their own.

or is this totally not the case? i'd google it, but my pc couldnt take the strain of another internet window or anything, its practically antique!!

[MrB]

I also might add that the US Postal Service DOES in fact own your mailbox if you live in the United States.

Well, I have Googled and I can't verify this. The USPS regulates the standards of design and construction that private mailboxes must conform to, and (inexplicably) determines what is allowed to be put in them, but it doesn't own them.

On one specific point, the USPS does not and will not accept or hold a key to your private mailbox so they can deliver mail to it. If you have a personal lock on your mailbox and you lose the key, it is your responsibility to replace the lock or get a new key made.

As hzatorsk said, how can the USPS own your mailbox after you have gone to Home Depot and bought it with your own money from the selection on display?

(See this link for US Domestic Mail Manual: http://pe.usps.gov/text/dmm/d041.htm )

[master in training]

how do you mean they determine what is allowed to be put in them? if its something that might harm a worker like a bear trap, i agree, lol! if it was something like someone drops something off but you're not home and they leave it in the mail box and USPS dont like it?

if they got really bad, i supose you could sue for invasion of your rights, since its your property and, if its anythign like the UK was, USPS has an obligation under law to deliver mail to every citizen in the US, so they couldnt just cut you out of the route

[hzatorsk]

The post office does not OWN personal mailboxes.

...

If it is YOUR mailbox...

Now you guys got me quoting myself.

MIT,

Your missing it. US Post Office does not provide a 'personal' single dwelling a mailbox. They have regulations as to what it must look like... but you have to go out and buy it. (Of course... if you buy a house... it comes with the house)

Elijah,

Rebuttals should include a link... one with USPS.GOV in it would be acceptable.

Omelet,

I live about 1300 miles from Leavenworth. I will not be visiting you. Apartment complex lockboxes are NOT your personal property. I trust you are working as a hired locksmith at the explicit request of the landlord or property owner...

[master in training]

ok, im wrong, it just seems an odd set up, sorry!

i'll defend omelet though, he said he had a mailbox lock, not that he was picking the locks on a mail box, theres a difference. how he came about the lock and how legal that part is i dont know! but oh well...