We need a locking mailbox. Suggest one?

September 21, 2010 12:20 PM

We need a locking mailbox. Suggest one?

We need a locking mailbox at the new place. I've been looking at them and reading reviews and I really have no idea how to choose one. We live in an area with mail theft and mailbox baseball. Search here revealed many people mentioning that they bought one, they installed one, etc. but no one mentioned what kind and if they were happy with it.

So, do you have a locking mailbox? Do you know someone who has one? What kind? Does it work?

posted by AllieTessKipp to home & garden (4 answers total)

No, to all of your questions, but when we were thinking about changing our mailbox, we asked our mail carrier for recommendations. Any chance of that? I would imagine they would have some good ideas about what works in your area.
posted by SuperSquirrel at 1:19 PM on September 21, 2010

The people on our neighborhood listserv, several of whom were having recurring stolen mail/box bashing incidents, highly recommend Fort Knox mailboxes.

I had one of these. Not sure of the brand but it's easily found at the big-box hardware stores for about $60 but I can't recommend it. It's fine for deterring the very casual (in my case I was preventing our house's previous owner's relatives from continuing to use our address as a maildrop) but it won't stand up to a more determined thief or a baseball bat as it's mostly plastic. My neighbor accidentally destroyed the box last year when she backed into it with her SUV and since crazyrelativesofpreviousowner were last decade's problem, I didn't replace it with the ~$400 Fort Knox.
posted by jamaro at 2:17 PM on September 21, 2010

We have an Armadillo Mailbox. As a former postal employee, this is the one I saw standing when virtually every other one ultimately got vandalized. I thought so much of them that I bought one in San Diego and took it home to Tenn. Google: The Armadillo Mailbox.
posted by Old Geezer at 2:19 PM on September 21, 2010

My mail carrier is very elusive. Very friendly, but I can't wait around out at the mailbox for her to appear because it is a different time every day. ;) I have not really seen many locking mailboxes out here, either.

I will check out those two suggestions! Thank you. :)
posted by AllieTessKipp at 3:56 PM on September 21, 2010