Those Darn Vandals!

Early Saturday morning (at about 12:30 AM), Jeff and I are lying in bed and we hear a crunching and scraping noise followed by a car screeching off. I said to Jeff, "It sounds like that car just hit something." Jeff looked out the window, but couldn't see any damage or the car. He laid back down, but a few minutes later checked out the window again and said, "Well, I can see now what they hit--the mailbox." Sure enough, someone had hit our mailbox along with our next door neighbors (the Burnhams). The mailboxes are right next to each other, so if you hit one---you hit 'em both.
In the morning I had to get to an early meeting. I saw the damage up close when I was leaving. It was a mess. As I left the neighborhood I saw one other mailbox down. So, I figured we weren't the only ones to get hit.
A few minutes after I left, an officer came to our house to let us know what had happened and to get a report. He told Jeff that many mailboxes and trees had been hit (in ours and another nearby neighborhood). The officer told Jeff that he would let him know if they found out anything.
Here's a picture of the smashed mailbox in our garbage can.
I wish I had taken a picture of the mess before Jeff cleaned it up.

While I was at my meeting, Jeff set to getting the mess cleaned up and buying the parts we needed for a new mailbox (all but the main post--which is the most expensive part). The main post didn't break because we had it in our dirt and rocks, so it just came out of the ground. Our next door neighbors had theirs in the cement, so it shattered.
Jeff put the new mailbox together later that afternoon. What a wonderful husband! He is on the ball!!! Here is a picture of the hot handyman doing his thing.We found out that between our neighborhood and the other, 15 homes had been vandalized (I think everything damaged was mailboxes or small trees).
Well, this sad story does have a happy ending. Our neighbors, Ryan and Melannie Wood, had a tree damaged (which is much more expensive than our mailbox). They were thinking that maybe these teenagers would drive around to check out the damage they had done (ya know, bragging to their buddies or whatever). So, they watched for suspicious cars driving by their home. Sure enough, a car with a couple teenagers drove slowly by. They got in their car and followed them around the neighborhood. The teenagers slowed down to look at smashed mailboxes and trees. They finally noticed that they were being followed and took off. The Woods got the license plate and called the cops. A few hours later the cops called them back and told them that it was the vandals! The two 17-year-old boys confessed that they did it. The cops also called us to let us know they had made two juvenile arrests. Who knows what will happen, but we're keeping our receipts!