Life on Florida’s West Coast

Mailboxes: to lock or not to lock?

To lock or not to lock — that is the question.

When I lived in a townhouse, we had banks of locked mailboxes and I rather liked it, but that may have been because our box was located in a clump right beside out townhouse and it was just like a single-family home when you pull into your drive and check the mail on your way in .

Then we moved back to a neighborhood where there were individual, unlocked Mailboxes out on the curb. I like the convenience, but we had heard about kids going about at night taking things from the boxes. It always makes you worry when things like bills and those pesky credit card offers are just sitting in a totally unprotected box where anyone could potentially get to it.

Now, I am still in a community of large single family homes, but we have mail kiosks. Ours is NOT close. I often forget to check the mail and put it off for days on end. It has had me irritated, but I then I come right back to the realization that I LIKE how safe my mail is when it is sitting in a locked box. Yes, there is still the possibility of mail fraud as it travels to get to me, but at least it is safe as it languishes in the mailbox waiting for me to pick it up.

This leads me to my move. The movers are going to be here in about 6 hours. The mailbox at the new place is cute and functional, but absolutely not locked. I think the first thing I am going to do is inquire into one of those spiffy security models.

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1 Comment »

Comment by Pontarae Subscribed to comments via email
2008-07-07 18:49:51

The cute mailbox sounds lovely! But I’m sure you learned to love your mail kiosks just as we love our new cluster box units.

We learned to love secure mailboxes after three break-ins to the old vertical mailbox units installed in the 1980s. Amazing how vulnerable the old boxes are.

Anyway we shot a video to show just how easy it is to get into the old things. (Hint: butterknife)

See my creation: Apartment Mailbox NIGHTMARE

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