Margaritaville without the alcohol, and with added stress

[elfs]

I took today off to hang out with Kouryou-chan. She'd actually rather spend it outdoors with her friends, and more power to her for making that decision, but given all the free time I've had you'd think I'd actually get something done. No, I spent it reading, mostly Banks' Matter. I guess that's not wasting the day away, but there's a long list of things I plan to do someday.

Why not now? Dunno. Just low energy today.

Smashed Mailboxes

I did go out once, briefly, to take Kouryou-chan to the video store, and on the way back, I saw that my mailbox, and all the other mailboxes that share flag streets off the dead end, had been smashed to pieces.

The story we got from the neighbor two doors down is that someone came down the street, driving crazy for no reason we know, bounced off the mailboxes and slammed into the car in her driveway. He must have slowed down quite a bit by then, realizing that not only was that street a dead-end but that the apparent egress was a dirt path that led down an unnavigably overgrown hill, because he hit her car only hard enough to dent it and push it into her house, causing damage to a window. The police had apparently been in pursuit, because they had him in custody and already towed away his car by the time Kouryou-chan and I returned from our errand.

The police never bothered to inform anyone of the damage. It was just there for us to discover later. Nor have we been told how to recoup damages from the vandal. I'm going to have to get together with the neighbors and see what we can do about putting the shelf of mailboxes back together.

Comments

[lisakit.livejournal.com]

Did the neighbor say which police; city or county? And do they have a card from one of the officers?

Find out and call the police agency. Tell them that you're property was also damaged at such-and-such time and place and ask them how to make a claim or statement and possibly recoup your losses. And, of course, share the info with your other neighbors.

Sheesh! Glad it happened while you were gone and not when K. was potentially playing in the area!

[ionotter.livejournal.com]

A family friend of ours once had a "dispute" with the local town snowplow.

Seems the snowplow would come allll the way up onto his property and take out his mailbox. First snow of the year, like clockwork at 0530, here comes the plow, and *BAP!*. End of mailbox.

Well, after complaining and filing reports, he was told to move his mailbox back from the road. So he tried that, and the mailman complained. So he put it on a pivot, and the plow simply came up a little further to take out the post. Well, after five mailboxes, he'd had it.

He dug a 5' hole and sank a 10 foot long, 10" I-beam into concrete and made sure the narrow portion was facing in the direction of traffic. He damn near killed himself putting it in, but he did it. He painted it bright orange, put reflectors on it and made it stand out like a sore thumb. And just to be thorough, he put it at the regulation 3' from the edge of the road.

0525 on the morning of the first snow of the season, he hears the plow coming around the hill. He wakes up all the way and lays there listening. The rumble gets louder as it gets closer, and the pitch changes a bit. The engine guns faster and the blade on the plow starts rumbling as it's chewing up dirt and grass instead of the snow on the pavement.

*BRAASSH-BWONNNGGG-SCREEEEEEECH-BU-BUM-BUM-BADDA-BUDDA-BUMP-WHUMP!*

He didn't want to be watching when it happened, just in case the poor shit in the cab caught him. Instead, he came out to "investigate the crash" and found the remains of the plow and the wing plow laying in the middle of his lawn, and the truck over the edge of the road and down in the ditch. The tracks in the snow on the road seemed to suggest that the truck had spun around at least twice.

The state troopers came, since the driver was pretty pissed off. Our friend came out and gave his report like a good citizen, and the driver started reading him the riot act. Well, the cops just looked at the tracks and saw where the drive had come a full THREE FEET onto the property.

The mailbox, sitting pretty on top of the I-beam, wasn't even dented.

[drewkitty.livejournal.com]

I second the motion to contact law enforcement and file a claim.

While my sympathies are with the armored mailbox below, I am reminded of a similar situation in the town where I grew up where a guy kept having cars go into his yard because they blew the turn.

After the second one ended up in his living room, he ordered several large breakwater rocks (you know, one semi-trailer per rock) installed in his front yard. He painted them bright white.

The next accident left two dead. The guy sold his house and went far away. Eventually the city put guardrails in front of the rocks.

[reynai.livejournal.com]

I am not a lawyer. But:

I have a friend who works at City Hall (in the city near where I live), and an event similar to this happened to a resident. Long story short, the claim was denied. Why? Because the police did not cause it. The -driver- they were pursuing caused it.

While submitting a claim anyway isn't a bad idea, my advice would be to see about getting a copy of the police report, and contact a lawyer about recourse directly from the driver responsible, or see about filing a claim in small claims court. The police report, your photographs, and possibly subpoenaed officers as well will be your proof in court.

Good luck.