Mailboxes

For generations, the blue mailbox on the corner of Bomberry Street and Clubhouse Drive was a meeting place where neighbors caught up while walking the dog or pushing the baby stroller. Then, one day this summer, it vanished. Postal officials determined that the mailbox, along with 17 others in Lakewood, was not being used enough and should be removed. To residents, it was like losing a trusted neighbor.

Police say a 7-year-old Florida boy faces grand theft auto charges after taking his grandmother's sport utility vehicle for a joy ride. The eight-minute ride left a swath of damage in his Palm Beach Gardens neighborhood. He smashed mailboxes, hit parked cars and signposts, driving, literally, until a wheel fell off. He was unhurt. A police spokeswoman said the boy was unlikely to be prosecuted. They arrested him so he could get some help, she said, noting that it was "unusual behavior for a 7-year-old."

Re "Hundreds of mailboxes stamped out," March 18 What amazes us about the elimination of more than 900 mailboxes in the last several weeks is that the U.S. Postal Service could undertake this project without any input from the community. Our local post office told us that the boxes were removed due to the low volume of mail. The person we spoke to sympathized with our complaint but did not know where our nearest mailbox was now located. We would suggest that at a minimum the post office should print and distribute to affected areas the locations of the remaining mailboxes, including the schedule of pickups at each box. We also urge Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills)

If apartment dwellers were looking forward to larger and more secure mailboxes as proposed by the U.S. Postal Service, forget it. The Postal Service on Wednesday modified its retrofitting requirements of a year ago after two apartment trade groups estimated the changes would cost the industry about $2 billion. The Postal Service's mandatory redesign sought larger, more secure mailboxes to improve mail safety and keep up with growing mail volume.

A man accused in a Midwestern mailbox bombing spree is delusional and should not be freed because he's too great a risk to society, a government psychologist testified Wednesday. Dr. Andrew Simcox said Lucas Helder, 23, believed he vibrated at a certain pitch and could fly out of his body, and that physical death was insignificant because it just moved people to a higher plane of consciousness.

Los Angeles police aren't making a federal case about this--but they could. Thieves have been snatching dozens of ornate mailboxes--sometimes leaving the mail curbside--throughout the west San Fernando Valley. Over the last six weeks, the Los Angeles Police Department's Devonshire Division has logged some 62 theft reports. In the West Valley, about 40 mailboxes were reported stolen. While it is a federal crime to steal property used by the U.S.

What happens when mailboxes get boxed in? In Compton, they get boxed up. Residents who are angry over missing the day's mail because cars parked on their street block their mailboxes have decided to exchange traditional home delivery for apartment-style mail service. From now on they will pick up their mail from cabinet-size neighborhood drops that serve as many as 16 families at a time instead of curbside boxes in front of their houses. Some might call that a step back.

HIS CHALLENGE: Whitaker had spent 30 years in telecommunications and was a senior staff manager at AT&T in 1985 when his bosses told him his department would be eliminated in six months. At the time he was 48, with one of five daughters still at home. HOW HE COPED: First he became a consultant in his field. But in 1991 he realized he probably wouldn't be able to sell the business to get retirement money, so he bought a Mail Boxes Etc. franchise.

Robberies of Los Angeles mail carriers--particularly on the first of the month when government checks are delivered--have soared, prompting postal authorities to take drastic security measures and to plead with residents to keep "a watchful eye" on their neighborhood carriers. Fully half of the 294 robberies of carriers or postal facilities in the United States last year occurred in the Postal Service's six-county Greater Los Angeles region.

A pipe bomb exploded in a U.S. mailbox on Main Street early Friday, blowing a panel off the box and destroying some mail, but otherwise causing no damage or injuries, police and postal officials said. Authorities sought to assure the public Friday that the small blast had nothing in common with devices sent by the notorious Unabomber, or threats against federal property in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing. Rather, the pipe bomb was probably the work of a juvenile, they said.