Block of Units: Our mailboxes have recently been broken into - any ideas on how to bolster?

Our mailboxes are being broken into recently by some of the wonderful souls of which we are seeing more & more of these days. Wondering if anyone might have any clever ideas on how to bolster the 'flap' doors that have a simple/central 'tongue' key lock latch. Personally I'd like to secretly have the metal doors and frame directly connected to the power from nearby street/pole wiring but might be hard to find a lesser legit' electrician to do the job and he'd have to charge extra for doing covertly for sure. We could have a hidden switch so whenever we collected our mail we could interrupt the power supply. We'd have to inform the postie' and junk mail people (?) informed as well I suppose. But getting back to reality we are concerned about our mail being stolen and the potential for identity theft related issues in days, months or years to come.

The flaps are left ajar so I'm quite certain they haven't been accessing by turning the key barrels. These types of mail boxes and said door flaps would easily be pried open with a medium/large screw driver.
The R/E agents 'property manager' is consistency indifferent, often outright hostile & hopeless and this is well known amongst other residents so appealing for better/more secure boxes aint' gonna happen. I have thought about paying for a post office box but another expense along with everything else going up and of course other expenses such as this 'popping' up out of the blue leaves me hoping that some of the good souls here on OB might have ideas or suggestions if especially some way to bolster/improve the existing 'system'. Would be nice to beat these %*:$#'s at their own game. We sure seem to be having to 'accomodate' a lot of bad/unethical behaviour these days don't we.

Many thanks,
Chris.

Comments

  • +1

    Maybe put a fake piece of mail in there to see if you were robbed. You might consider a fake CCTV camera nearby. It would be nice if you could booby trap a few but that's not legal.

    • Not a bad idea(s).

      Cheers.

  • +2

    get a PO box.

    • It may well come to this, cheers.

  • +1

    I’d suggest you setup a camera to capture who is breaking in, include motion detection lights. Then take stills from the capture and plaster them on the front fence with “thief” written on them. There was a shop in Brunswick St, that kept getting graffiti on it, until they plastered pictures of the perps on the windows and the graffiti stopped.

    • Some great tips there. Many thanks.

  • +4

    Smear the poo poo.

    Maybe some blood.

    Or both.

    No one steals from the bleedy poopy box.

    • lol 'no one steals from the bleed poopy box'.
      Got a good laugh out of that one ts'.

  • +2

    Bikies

  • +3

    Anthrax in an envelope with bank logo on it and use as bait

  • +1

    Almost identical scenario from 2014, but with video recording of said thief.

    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/156516

    • Cheers for that, greatly appreciated. Sorry I hadn't noticed a somewhat similar post had been made in the past guys.
      (didn't come up as a possible duplicate).
      But again, many thanks.

  • +1

    Can you glue a solid piece of metal or plywood to the back of the door so that the door/flap doesn't flex when they attempt to pry it open?

    • I did wonder if a thicker 'plate' instead of the somewhat flimsy door may work.
      Cheers.

  • Leave a liam Neeson letter in there.

    • How would you word it though?

      • If your mail box is right at the bottom or on the far side you could try drilling a hole for a padlock to prevent the door being pried open.

  • +1

    You can change the lock barrel to a security key. I did this when our letterboxes where being opened (which I found was very easy to do with a standard key). It cost about $30 for a new barrel from locksmiths and stopped my mail from being stolen!

    • Seems much like the one thats on the door now. Certainly is extra security at the key/barrel location, but I think they could still pry open the door(s).
      Glad it worked for you though and thanks for adding this.

      • I was going to suggest similar. If they were prying open it would at least leave marks and probably obvious damage. I would expect once pried open they couldn't be locked again as they'd be all bent. Those common tubular locks, especially if they're older, used to have a vulnerability where they could be opened with a pen. My guess is that's what's happening.

        Instead of changing it for another tubular lock speak to a locksmith and see what else they can offer. A normal pin key will solve the pen attack but everything in that size is typically very easy to open if you know what you're doing.

        The most secure option is going to be a PO Box though.

  • +1

    Leave a dodgy looking letter like drug drop off.

    Fill letter with laxatives.

    • So tempting.

      They'd probably wuff' em down as soon as they saw they hey. Dumb _____'s that they no doubt are.
      Anybody have some arsenic or anthrax kicking around?

      • +1

        I'm sure the thieves deserve whatever is coming their way but let's keep it classy - ie. Not murdery.

  • +1

    we have changed it to password type lock

    • Glad it worked for you. Can't see it working for me, but again - glad it worked for you.

  • Show me a photo of your letter box (internal, external), and I'll show you how to use a bag of party poppers to scare the Sh#t out of them ;-)

  • Dummy camera
    Its an inside job

  • Leave a handful of nuts or similar inside. When the culprits reach in they will grab it and make a fist and be unable to pull their hands out, and you'll be able to catch them in the act.

    • -1

      Could easily engineer an rake teethed flap.

      Hand goes in easy but impossible to retract without losing some serious skin.

  • Make a fake letter reading,
    Hello I've been trying to pay you that $200 cash for the last 2 months I owe you. I,d really like to meet you in person after helping out a friend of a friend you must have a heart of gold.
    Anyway can you call my number ( your number) so we can meet up down the pub and I'll buy you a beer and pay you the money.
    Cheers.
    Just bring the rest of the residents with you and sort him old fashion style.

    • +1

      Or just sit outside on a rocking chair with a shotgun and yell GIT OFFA MAH PROPERTEE every five minutes. Some of these suggestions are bloody stupid (not talking about the funny ones).

  • Take a photo of the mail box and post it here. I sorted my mail theft by drilling a hole for a padlock (get one rated for weather resistance). The only way in now is to cut the lock.

    Our mail boxes have the niffty little anti-theft flap so reaching in to grab mail isn't possible without tools. My mother's mail box does not have this flap so I often collect her mail without a key. Sadly she won't let me fix it.

    I'm sure you could make a flap if that's the issue.

  • +1

    Contact this guy for advice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoxhDk-hwuo

  • Any security video from the building corporate? If so, maybe file a report with the police in case the person is known to them.

    Not much of a way to secure your letter box (not much you can do when it's probably common property) but emptying it everyday helps to reduce the risk of any lose (since mail thief tends to happen at night when fewer people are around)

  • Its a block of units so totally out of OPs control

    All OP can do is complain to the strata manager.

    Im sure they would be onto it anyway as OP wouldnt be the only one complaining

  • +1

    Just came back from Peru, and I saw with their letterboxes people had actually bolted a long thick strip of metal across the front of a row of letter boxes. Letter boxes looked like lockers in a wall so there was no back plate. So the end of the metal strip had a large lock on it and it swung out when people needed to get to the boxes. Solution maybe?

    • Thanks lainey. It is helpful and does have potential. I'd have to get the idea across to others who have boxes in line with mine to share the expense/effort.
      We could drill in a couple of dyna-bolts and attach a 2-3 inch strip of metal across the row of boxes and have a weater-proof lock on.

      Our R/E agents property mgr is very unobliging though so doubt if he'd authorise such a remedy. At this stage I'm thinking of getting a P.O. box.
      Though I strongly resent that so many of us in society are having to pay these extra expenses due to the lesser ethical ones of which we are now seeing so many of these days. Seems to me that we are too complacent and overly accepting of bad behaviour.

Login or Join to leave a comment