'Mailbox Baseball' A Common Phenomenon

The name says it all: mailbox baseball.

By definition, it's the popular pastime of cruising the streets late at night and smashing mailboxes with a baseball bat or, occasionally, a golf club. If you want an example, Google the term and you'll get a half dozen YouTube links of kids in throes of laughter as the pieces fly.

It's also been documented in movies such as "Stand By Me," "Dazed and Confused" and even an episode of "The Simpsons."

That's not quite what happened last Saturday night, when 27 mailboxes were smashed in a neighborhood south of Spring Hill Drive. Authorities say an 18-year-old used his pickup truck to cause the destruction, along with barreling over three street signs.

But a news story in Hernando Today about the arrest got people talking about mailbox baseball and fueled speculation that it was happening in their neighborhood.

Mike Aston was among them.

For the past five years, Aston has patrolled the streets in a gold Saturn, doing his duty with the Spring Hill Alert Resident Patrol Crime Watch, or SHARP, From time to time, he would notice a smashed mailbox, but it was nothing out of the ordinary.

Then around mid-October the number of damaged mailboxes in his zone began to grow. He mentioned it at a monthly crime watch meeting, but had neglected to keep a list of the locations.

After that he kept notes: There was one at Leeland and Roland streets, then another seven or eight between Elgin and Deltona boulevards, and still others on Killian, Palomar, Tiburon and Landover.

"(There's) no indication there is a connection," Sgt. Donna Black, sheriff's spokeswoman, said Wednesday, adding that mailbox vandalism is something that happens in most neighborhoods.

"Some people think it's fun and games, but it's really a hardship," Black said.

John Willett lives around the corner from Gold Road, where nine mailboxes were run over on Saturday. His mailbox had been destroyed three months ago and he had initially suspected his neighbor was responsible.

But his neighbor's mailbox was later run over as well, as were two others on the block. That erased any suspicion, but it still left him wondering who was responsible.

"It made me feel better 'cause I was mad at my neighbor across the street," he said.

Solutions are few. Earlier this year, a Wisconsin family got so fed up with kids targeting their mailbox that they stayed up one night and caught them in the act. They chased the suspects at 100 mph before cornering them in a gas station and calling the cops, news reports show.

Some have taken to reinforcing their mailboxes with brick or metal cages. Another suggestion is to fill a mailbox with cement. But authorities warn this can result in serious injury or death to a motorist who strikes the immovable object.

"We caution against structural reinforcement," Black said.