Growing up in a rural community doesn’t leave much for teens to do, but unfortunately, this boredom leads some to petty vandalism.

When a group of Ohio teens terrorized their community by smashing mailboxes, one crafty welder decided to make his mailbox a little less welcoming — and the results hit harder than expected.

You’ll want to read on for this one.

Mailbox baseball anyone?

My friend lives out on a country road in rural Ohio.

Even their remote location couldn’t save them from the wrath of their local teens.

Every so often, groups of kids will ride around and smash people’s mailboxes with baseball bats, usually from the back of a moving pickup truck.

My buddy, a welder, got sick and tired of replacing his mailbox, so he exacted his revenge.

He put his specialties to good use, crafting a revenge plot as strong as steel – literally.

He built himself an exact replica of one of those little mailboxes you used to see that looked like a farmhouse.

Painted it to look just like the commercially available ones.

The only difference: This one was made of 1/4” thick plate steel, welded to an I-beam post.

With some safety precautions, he figured his little trick would teach the teens a lesson.

He put a break-away at the bottom of the post, for safety’s sake in case of a legit car accident, but there was no way this thing was going to budge under some teenager’s baseball bat.

He figured a few kids would break their bats and learn to leave his property alone.

And a lesson was taught indeed.

What he didn’t figure on was the starting quarterback of the local high school football team breaking both his bat AND his arm the very next weekend.

No more football for this jock.

Redditors provide their two cents.

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

One couple turned a similar situation into a teaching moment for a delinquent teen.

Behave like a criminal, get marked as one.

For anyone thinking of smashing a mailbox: Don’t.

Next time, maybe these rural teens will think twice about where they swing.

The welder’s mailbox stood unscathed, but the quarterback’s ego (and arm) weren’t so lucky.

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