So, our mail carrier left the mailbox unlocked

[Xist]

Worse, when I tracked her down and called out "Ma'am" a few times, she ignored me and got in her truck. When I honked and yelled "The mailbox is open!" She yelled back "I know!" How is this someone else's problem?

Someone claimed that it must have been broken, the carrier isn't a repairman!

Why is she leaving mail in a broken mailbox?

[redpoint5]

Well, a broken mailbox is the most likely explanation, and the carrier is not a repairman.

Doesn't seem that big a deal to me; none of the mailboxes on my parent's street has a lock.

What we need is for theft to be punished more severely.

[Xist]

They must have felt it was a big enough deal to install these and stop delivering to our houses.

[redpoint5]

Start taking pinkies with a cleaver and I bet mail theft would drop precipitously. Although pinkies are hardly necessary, I bet people would prefer to keep them.

[Xist]

Right... Hide in a tree in the snow and wait for someone to steal mail?

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by Xist

Right... Hide in a tree in the snow and wait for someone to steal mail?

Don't have to catch very many... word will get around.

[iikhod]

Around here it's very rare to have a mailbox with a lock.
Only the wealthy people have those.

Wrap a chain around the box and lock it.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by Xist

They must have felt it was a big enough deal to install these and stop delivering to our houses.

The problem is, how do you know if someone belongs at a group mailbox or not?

At my parent's house, if the person at the box aren't my parents or the mailman, you can safely commence with finger removal.

With these shared boxes, the whole reason they are susceptible to theft is because there's no reason to suspect someone shouldn't be there, and they get to steal from many people all in 1 small effort.

[Fat Charlie]

Originally Posted by Xist

They must have felt it was a big enough deal to install these and stop delivering to our houses.

If they mentioned theft, they were lying to you. They did it to reduce their own costs. How many house stops get taken care of in that one spot? How many of these mass boxes to they need to replace one mailman? And when someone says "Hey, that sucks", he gets told "Um, they all have locks on them now, you're safer".

[redpoint5]

...and these days they don't actually cut down on the number of required stops. They put 2 large boxes in the cluster for packages, meanwhile most everyone is getting packages delivered on a daily basis. That means the carrier is stopping at each door to leave a package. They might as well deliver the skinny stuff along with the big stuff if they are going to be on my porch.