20151228 (desperation)

Someone broke into the 

Mailboxes last night. 

Second time in a month. A

Community-style cluster-box

Unit standing on a poured

Concrete foundation block,

Unbudgeable anchor for

The dozen or more families

Residing on the cul-de sac 

Of Aspinwall Estates, 

Forest home to upper

Middle class worker bees,

Doctors, lawyers, well-paid

Ministers of the numerous

Small to middle-sized 

Corporations of recent founding.

Box doors open by key 

On the back to protect 

Customers from traffic 

On the access court 

When fetching their mail

And open by key on the

Other side for the mailman.

Ideally such units reduce 

Postal costs markedly for

What would otherwise

Be a formidable, expensive

Door-to-door service. 

Regulation rather than choice

Determines who gets it--an

Acceptable inconvenience

Compared to paying monthly

For a P. O. box at the 

Nearest station. Someone

Crowbarred the delivery side, 

Large doors at the top, the

Bottom, peeling them back 

As one would a tin of sardines. 

Surprisingly the brass and 

Steel lock held so the thief(-ves) 

Could reach into fewer 

Than half the letter

Compartments--nothing like 

A professional job. Were 

They kids in a pickup, 

Cruising the posher

Suburban realms, hoping to

Score cash-laden Christmas

Cards, or someone clued into

The shipment of a Rolex, an

Amazon parcel of high-power

Coke? I once worked for an

Office in an area replete 

With public housing which

Had been converted to cluster

Units from door-to-door for

Far less of a saving to the

Post office but with a greater

Security of the mail for the 

Customers. Previously thieves

Openly followed the carriers

As they delivered, then stole

From the cheap mailboxes

Hung by a single nail at

Each door. Seasonally, 

Around the Fourth of July, 

Vandals with M-80s would

Pry open a single central box, 

Deposit several grenades,

Their fuses tied together to

Unify the bangs. What result

Such simple craft wrought.

Investigators queried local

Hospitals of emergency

Treatment for persons showing

Flesh wounds from aluminum

Shrapnel. They were not

Apprehended. Last night's

Destruction was just another

Lesson in how vulnerable all

Of us are, both rich and poor

To guerilla crime.





c. J.S.Manista, 2015