Joined Jul 2005
Scarydevil Monastery
Forum Thread
My mailman keeps moving my trash can
August 13, 2012 at
08:21 AM
in
Help
I live at the dead end of a narrow lane. The garbage truck has to back down to get to me b/c there's no room for them to turn around.
I leave my trash out on Mondays. The can sits about six feet in front of my mailbox. There aren't a lot of other places to put it where I can still get into/out of my driveway + the garbagemen can still see the can. Any further up the lane and it blocks my neighbor's driveway. The other side of the lane is overgrown & the two times I've tried leaving it there, they either didn't see it or ignored it (either way it wasn't emptied).
My mailman is very lazy & doesn't like to get out of his truck. On multiple occasions he's rammed my trash can, knocking it over, dragging it around my driveway, etc. I know it's him but had no concrete proof until today.
I pointed my home security cameras out the window and watched as he rammed the trash can, shoving it back several feet. I'd left him a note in my mailbox asking him to stop doing this and informing him that I'd set up my cameras to record such incidents.
He jumped around angrily for a while, then moved his truck and put my trash can back close to where it had been. Then he took pictures of it from four angles and wrote me what I assume is a very nasty note.
This guy has on past occasions left me other notes. Once when I parked too close to my own mailbox in my own driveway he wrote me a long-winded screed about how federal law mandates I leave so much space in front of the box, etc. I can't wait to see what this note says.
Anyway I didn't get good clips of him doing all of this b/c I'm new to recording stuff on these cameras. I have him taking his pictures and I have his mail truck in front of my mailbox with the trash can not there. Next week for sure I'll have figured out the procedure and get the entire thing but... I'm wondering if there are other ways to approach this.
The asshole in me says to get rid of the mailbox altogether & put a mail slot in my front door. That way he'd have to get out of his truck every damned day instead of just on Mondays. I can't really move the mailbox right now but I'll have a fence built eventually and may move it then.
More info about this guy: one Saturday when I was working in my garden & had a pile of yard waste set out for a scheduled pickup, he came by to deliver my mail and I guess the bags were in his way (honestly - I could've driven around them to line up with the mailbox but I guess he couldn't/didn't want to). So he got out and kicked the bags of several times. He didn't know I was in the garden. I wish I'd confronted him then but all I could do was stare at him throwing this tantrum like a little kid. He also drives like a maniac, coming down the lane at like 40mph and taking a really wide turn to come up to my mailbox. He backs up so fast he throws gravel everywhere most of the time, in addition to the other asshole stuff he does like moving my trash can around (one time he hauled it all the way into the middle of my front yard).
I'd like to complain to his supervisors too but I'm not sure it would do any good? I hardly get any important mail but I'd hate to jeopardize anything. Plus some shippers only send USPS... part of me says "get a PO box and be done with it" but part of me also wants to WIN this war.
What to do?
I leave my trash out on Mondays. The can sits about six feet in front of my mailbox. There aren't a lot of other places to put it where I can still get into/out of my driveway + the garbagemen can still see the can. Any further up the lane and it blocks my neighbor's driveway. The other side of the lane is overgrown & the two times I've tried leaving it there, they either didn't see it or ignored it (either way it wasn't emptied).
My mailman is very lazy & doesn't like to get out of his truck. On multiple occasions he's rammed my trash can, knocking it over, dragging it around my driveway, etc. I know it's him but had no concrete proof until today.
I pointed my home security cameras out the window and watched as he rammed the trash can, shoving it back several feet. I'd left him a note in my mailbox asking him to stop doing this and informing him that I'd set up my cameras to record such incidents.
He jumped around angrily for a while, then moved his truck and put my trash can back close to where it had been. Then he took pictures of it from four angles and wrote me what I assume is a very nasty note.
This guy has on past occasions left me other notes. Once when I parked too close to my own mailbox in my own driveway he wrote me a long-winded screed about how federal law mandates I leave so much space in front of the box, etc. I can't wait to see what this note says.
Anyway I didn't get good clips of him doing all of this b/c I'm new to recording stuff on these cameras. I have him taking his pictures and I have his mail truck in front of my mailbox with the trash can not there. Next week for sure I'll have figured out the procedure and get the entire thing but... I'm wondering if there are other ways to approach this.
The asshole in me says to get rid of the mailbox altogether & put a mail slot in my front door. That way he'd have to get out of his truck every damned day instead of just on Mondays. I can't really move the mailbox right now but I'll have a fence built eventually and may move it then.
More info about this guy: one Saturday when I was working in my garden & had a pile of yard waste set out for a scheduled pickup, he came by to deliver my mail and I guess the bags were in his way (honestly - I could've driven around them to line up with the mailbox but I guess he couldn't/didn't want to). So he got out and kicked the bags of several times. He didn't know I was in the garden. I wish I'd confronted him then but all I could do was stare at him throwing this tantrum like a little kid. He also drives like a maniac, coming down the lane at like 40mph and taking a really wide turn to come up to my mailbox. He backs up so fast he throws gravel everywhere most of the time, in addition to the other asshole stuff he does like moving my trash can around (one time he hauled it all the way into the middle of my front yard).
I'd like to complain to his supervisors too but I'm not sure it would do any good? I hardly get any important mail but I'd hate to jeopardize anything. Plus some shippers only send USPS... part of me says "get a PO box and be done with it" but part of me also wants to WIN this war.
What to do?
114 Comments
Your comment cannot be blank.
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.
In any case, here's the note he left me:
You're seemingly not acknowledging it here, but you really are being a dick for blocking the mailbox. It's not allowed. I understand that it makes your life more difficult, but it also makes his life more difficult, and the law sides with him.
I've seen him get up on the mailbox even when there's NOTHING in the driveway/area in front of the house. It takes him about forty-five seconds of pulling forward, backing up, pulling forward again, backing up... I'm not sure why he has so much trouble but it seems very difficult for him.
I'll get pics up next week for sure.
My mailbox tomorrow will contain the following:
+ one bottle of water.
I haven't decided yet whether I'll write (in very small letters at the very bottom of the bag) "For the night is dark and full of terrors." Probably not though. I need to avoid being arrested or imprisoned too early in this campaign.
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.
I have a plan.
In any case, here's the note he left me:
And VQ, AFA the mailman being lazy... I agree you have special circumstances but I just want to throw this out there.
If they had to get out at too many people house to get their job done they would run onto overtime and probably be bitched at by their supervisors.
I know that when I drove for a living we were on a very tight schedule...down to the minute for picking up kids. So if one was running late it set me off schedule for the rest. Now I didn't mind doing that for kids once in a while but if it got to be a habit I let them know I wasn't waiting anymore and then I didn't..I just left.
On a route with 12- 15 stops those late kids added up. If it got to be habit then the kids after that stop got used to being picked up late..then if I was on time they would miss the bus.
As for wanting to put up a mailbox by your door that might be a neighborhood thing. I have lived in neighborhoods where they were all by the street..then the last one in MI they were all up by the doors (a walking mail route) which I loved...and now in Vegas it's just one of those cluster boxes for the whole street and we each have our own keys.
Good luck with all of this. These day to day annoyances can really get under the skin.
And I wrote this after only reading the first few posts..I see you are already having your own brand of fun with him.
Both notes have somewhat personal info (he addressed them to me personally and signed with his name) so I haven't taken the time to scan them in & obscure those portions (I've also been really busy at work). I may do that yet.
All of that said, we will see what happens on Monday when I put the trash can in the same spot (making sure to take pictures from all angles showing how much space I leave for the mailman) and set up the cameras again (this time with knowledge about how to record clips properly). There may be more to come. Or, the proper action's already been taken.
TL;DR: tomatoes cure cancer
Both notes have somewhat personal info (he addressed them to me personally and signed with his name) so I haven't taken the time to scan them in & obscure those portions (I've also been really busy at work). I may do that yet.
All of that said, we will see what happens on Monday when I put the trash can in the same spot (making sure to take pictures from all angles showing how much space I leave for the mailman) and set up the cameras again (this time with knowledge about how to record clips properly). There may be more to come. Or, the proper action's already been taken.
TL;DR: tomatoes cure cancer
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.
I think it will be just the opposite. Now the mailman has learned that the last time he rammed the trash can he received delicious free produce fresh from the garden. I would expect him to continue this behavior.