From: John De Armond
Newsgroups: triangle.general,rec.outdoors.rv-travel,rec.travel.cruises
Subject: Re: Important safety message
Date: Sun, 21 Jan 2007 15:39:18 -0500
Message-ID: <fdj7r2hq461uh1tpksqtvf9cd6qmgeakvn@4ax.com>

On Sun, 21 Jan 2007 02:40:28 -0500, "Steve Wolf" <news@w8iz.com>
wrote:

>A kid in our city would have fun running down a particular set of garbage
>cans each garbage day.  Perhaps he knew the fellow.  The fellow did not know
>him.  He just went out and cleaned up the garbage.  After three or four
>weeks, a loud bang signaled an accident out front.  There, sitting on top of
>a fire hydrant, was the offending car.  The property owner ran out yelling,
>"I GOT HIM!  I GOT HIM!" before his neighbors shuffled him back into the
>house.  Seems he had cut the bottom out of one of his garbage cans and
>placed it over the hydrant.

I did something similar back right after I got married.  My house was
on an off-camber turn, unfortunately with sufficient straight-away for
people to build considerable speed.  The (presumed) drunks would hit
the turn far too fast, slide off the side and mow down my mail box.

After about the 5th mail box I put a stop to it.  I got a length of 8"
diameter sched 40 well casing from the local scrap yard.  I sunk that
thing in the ground about 8 ft, set it in concrete, filled it with
rebar and concrete and welded a mail box mount on top.  Then I built a
cedar shake sheath around the thing to make it look like a wood
structure.

Wifey and I came home one afternoon to find a convention of blue and
red lights at our house.  Half of a car was up in our yard and the
other half was in the Chief Deputy's yard across the street.  The wood
was gone from the pipe, as was the mail box but the pipe still stood
upright, maybe listing a degree or so.

The drunk had broadsided my mailbox right between the driver and
passenger door.  The impact cut the car in half.  The cops estimated
him to be going over 60 from the skid marks.  Unfortunately he walked
away unharmed.  Well, as much as he could walk, stumbling-down drunk
and all.

Especially since the Chief Deputy lived across the street and was
equally fed up with the speeders, I got many high-fives from the cops.
Numerous photos were taken and I suspect, many identical posts were
installed.

Interestingly enough, that was the last time that post got hit.  I
replaced the mail box and the wood but never again was it hit.  Word
must get around.

From: John De Armond
Newsgroups: triangle.general,rec.outdoors.rv-travel,rec.travel.cruises
Subject: Re: Important safety message
Date: Sun, 21 Jan 2007 18:57:06 -0500
Message-ID: <sbv7r2t2qma9f203im3l62q2lvndpdbhga@4ax.com>

On Sun, 21 Jan 2007 18:03:21 -0500, Chrissy Cruiser
<chrissycruiser@yahoo.com> wrote:

>On Sun, 21 Jan 2007 15:39:18 -0500, Neon John wrote:

>> Wifey and I came home one afternoon to find a convention of blue and
>> red lights at our house.  Half of a car was up in our yard and the
>> other half was in the Chief Deputy's yard across the street.  The wood
>> was gone from the pipe, as was the mail box but the pipe still stood
>> upright, maybe listing a degree or so.
>>
>> The drunk had broadsided my mailbox right between the driver and
>> passenger door.  The impact cut the car in half.  The cops estimated
>> him to be going over 60 from the skid marks.  Unfortunately he walked
>> away unharmed.  Well, as much as he could walk, stumbling-down drunk
>> and all.
>
>Or you could have killed him/her.

Yes indeed.  Quite regrettable that the impact wasn't a little more
forward.  After all, someone driving that fast and that drunk in a
subdivision deserves nothing less than death.

John