Some problems call for simple solutions, but others require a bit more creativity.

So, what would you do if vandals kept destroying your neighborhood mailboxes?

Would you keep replacing them the same way?

Or would you come up with a fix that would stop them in their tracks?

In the following story, a group of neighbors found themselves in this very predicament.

Here’s what they did.

30 yrs later and they are still standing

I grew up on a country road with 4 houses. Our mailboxes were on the main road.

Someone kept vandalizing the four mailboxes by driving through them and breaking the posts.

I recall replacing the mailboxes a few times on weekends.

After 4-5 times, my dad and the neighbors hatched a plan.

My dad told me to go to bed early because we have a lot of work to do in the morning.

After breakfast, we go to the mailbox, and there are the other three neighbors and their sons, along with a tractor with a post-hole digger, railroad ties, cement, and a mini-mixer.

We proceed to dig two very deep holes.

Digging holes is very backbreaking where I lived, as the land was a very rocky region.

You only dig about 6 inches before we had to pull out a bunch of rocks in the hole.

We took turns digging out the rocks over the entire morning.

It didn’t take long for someone to hit the mailboxes.

There was a lot of motivation as this was the last time we were going to fix the mailboxes.

We dig two holes 6 feet deep and hoist two uncut 12 foot railroad ties in each hole.

We then proceed to fill to the top of each hole with cement. We added a cross beam and attached our new mailboxes.

After an entire day of digging holes then pouring concrete we all sat back and enjoyed our handywork.

A month goes by, and the kids and I walk to the mailbox to meet the bus.

We discover what happens when a moving car meets an unmovable object.

There is an old blue Buick Century with a smashed-up grill and bent wheel, and nobody is in the car.

This was well before cell phones, so we ran to the closest house and told the mom what we saw.

We go back to the main road and get on the bus with the car still there.

We found out later that the highway ticketed the driver, a 14 yr old kid, and towed the vehicle.

The car crash was just the beginning for that kid.

Now, where I grew up, you could get a daytime driver’s license at 14.

The one catch is that if you receive 2 violations over 2 years, you lose your license until you turn 16 years old.

The kid was ticketed for speeding a week prior.

Oops, he now lost his license for 1 1/2 years.

Insurance found out about the vandalism and refused to pay the claim, then put the insurance plan in the high-risk category even when the kid couldn’t drive.

The kid’s dad tried to fight it by saying the mailboxes were not legally built.

It turns out mailbox construction is set by the state and county, and our state/county did not have any regulations on county mailboxes.

I smile every time I go home.

After 30 years, the indestructible mailboxes are still standing.

That’s one way to make sure the mailboxes don’t need to be fixed again.

Let’s see how the folks over at Reddit feel about this story.

Similar story, but this person broke his hand trying to destroy the mailbox.

Here’s an example of a grandma who didn’t play with rowdy teens.

Eek, having a car crash into your bedroom would be terrifying.

This person had a friend who did the same thing and almost got sued.

They came up with the perfect solution!

Given the fact that the mailboxes are still there three decades later, this is a job well done!

If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.