A search in ARFcom yielded no hits.

I've had a rash of mailbox vandalism.  One stolen, replacement bashed in, and lately a M80 blowing it up.  Before I put up the next one I wanted to put a trail camera of some kind in place.  I'm in a rural area.  Sometimes kids come out to the lake to party and that makes for an easy target after a 12 pack or two.

Distance is about 200 feet from the house, several trees nearby to attach to.  Camera on house would require telephoto lenses and auxiliary lighting to see out by the road.  

The cost of a mailbox, roughly $35, makes it hard to justify hundreds or thousands spent on video or camera equipment.

One camera (Reconyx) is good at reading license plates, but it comes with a (approx.) $650 price tag.

The local farm store has the Wildlife Innovations Silent Crush 20MP for $130.  From the manual, I can set the time when it is active to catch only nighttime activity.  I do not need to capture images of every car that goes by during the day.  

Most cameras have a wide angle lens.  Most advertise 120 deg.  The distance to the tree will make most of the image useless and cost resolution.  I really need a zoom or telephoto lens.  I have had no luck in finding a camera that can capture only what I want.

Suggestions?

I just went out and looked things over again.  If I use the closest tree, perhaps 120 degree spread might work.

My limited game camera experience tells me that the cameras have limited range, especially at night. The limited sensor size (even with IR illuminator) means facial or license plate viz is limited.  How close will the tree be to your mailbox?  Can you put two cameras, facing the mailbox from both directions of the road?  Might increase your chances of getting a license plate.

All I know from reading the monster security cam thread in the security/safe section of the armory is that license plates are gonna require a decent camera.

To some extent I would consider rigging a custom setup using a driveway monitor to trigger several shots perhaps.

I guess asking over there might get you some advice as well.

Thanks

I knew a guy who was having issues with kids smashing his mailbox with ball bats.

He took a piece of 1/4" steel and rolled it into the shape of a mailbox, then welded it
to a piece of 4" steel pipe. He then set it in concrete.

I don't know if kids ever hit it with a bat again, but if they did I'm sure it was the last time they did.

You can also get heavy steel mail boxes.

That's next.  I already drew up the details to make a box like that.

Get a larger size mailbox and a smaller normal size box.
Put the small box inside the big box then fill the space between them with concrete.

Do some covert ops and have vehicle ready for pursuit. Contact local law enforcement for increased patrol.

8654

I really think you're gonna be disappointed with any kind of game camera that you can afford.

I'd just build a better mail box. If you're out in the country, nobody will care, especially if you already been hit multiple times and reported it to the sheriff's office.

Buddy of mine kept having his mailbox smashed. 

He just pounded it out, welded it up, put it back. Few rounds and the kids got bored.

Concrete mailbox FTW though..

My cousin had the same problem. He found two boxes at the dollar store. Filled them with concrete and mounted on either side of his regular box.

First night out he heard a car screech to a stop then speed off. He went out to get the mail the next day. One box had a dent and there was auto glass on the ground. The box caused the object hitting it to bounce back breaking the side glass on the car.

Has not lost a box since.

I like the one in the other with concrete idea.  Sweet!

When I was a kid people would bash in dad's.

My plan was to get a big box and a little box, take the door off the big, put the little one inside and fill with concrete so it is like armored.  He never did it but I thought it was a neat idea.

A decent security camera setup's not a bad investment for anyone in a rural area, beyond just catching the mailbox thwackers.  I'm pretty well camera'ed up, and it's helped us get the Highway Patrol to visit an aging perv who was stalking my high-school-aged daughter, convinced somebody who was ditching a dog to come pick it back up off my property, and twice provided footage to the Sheriff's dept. investigating local thefts/burglaries.  I'd consider a decent camera/recorder an overall security investment, not just something to catch the mailbox vandals.

I agree on the security system.  Not in the budget at the moment.

Could just camo up and wait in the bushes. But if you do juat observe and report. You do anything that ends up with them getting hurt and a lawyer will chew you up in court  (like it or not thats just the way it is)

We lived at a T intersection and the dam chicken feed trucks always cut the corner destroying our mail box. Well one ran it over and it and it had my dads mail order RX in it and ruined it. So my dad and I got even with them. We took the backhoe and dug out a hole about 6x6' and about 4 to 5' deep sunk in a 4" heavy walled pipe with spokes welded on it and formed it and filled with high strength concrete and filled the pipe to. We painted it white and put mulch on top of the concrete to camouflage it. Just put a cheap mailbox on top. within a week We had our first a feed truck, it looked like a giant can opener worked it over. Took then two days to clean up a spilled load of feed.  It only took one and the word got out to swing out at that corner and let that mail box be.

Damn- beaten by 22 others.

Has anybody suggested putting a small mailbox inside a larger one and filling the gap with concrete yet?

Yes.  A great idea.

We have had some issues with mail boxes around here too.  Be advised:  We found out thru questioning multiple resources that:

1.  Per code, a mailbox & the post it is attached to is / should be designed to "break away" during impact.  Most/all of the road signs are now this way to meet federal code. 

In fact, the US Postal Service here would NOT allow us to install the post & box when we moved to our property.  We bought the box & the Tx Hwy dept installed our USPS approved box on a USPS / Tex DOT approved post.  Of course exactly 4 days later, a 17 yr old kid lost control on the rain slick curve & wiped out pole & box . . . So, there went another 3 days and a new $38 mailbox . . . .

I had NEVER heard of this and about freaked when I found out about the restrictions.  I wanted to do something like y'all are talking about . . . no dice.  If they (USPOS & TxDOT) did not install, the USPS would not deliver our mail.   Because,

2.  IF you put your own box/post up and it does NOT break away and some one is injured because of the solid post, or incurs additional damage to THEIR property (i.e.: tears their car up), YOU the property owner WILL be sued by the person that hit the box & the state/feds.  "Since TxDOT installed mine, I am free and clear" . . . That is a direct quote from our postmaster.

So, Please be aware of this & CHECK your local codes, PLUS the fed statutes.

BTW, all of the info I just gave you was straight from our local postmaster.

I wonder if you install a 'break-away' mailbox and then immovable posts on either side, if that is up to code?

LOL  I dunno, but I like your thinking!

Was just about to post this same warning,  indestructible mailbox and/or post is considered a big no around here.
Had a neighbor build a really nice brick monument mailbox that matched his brick house, couple weeks later he had to demolish it and put up a regular post and box.

Superb. Stupidity should be painful and costly.

My dad was a mason contractor. Ergo, we couldn't have a simple. The box he had built was constructed out of sandstone with concrete lintels on top to form a peak. I know at least one vehicle took the turn into the drive too tightly. The box won that round.