Mailbox Go Boom!

One of the fellow members of the Paper Eaters Guild mentioned to me Sunday night that a bunch of road had been closed off due to a pipe bomb in a mailbox earlier that day. It turns out to be both less and more serious than the rumor. According to the Portland Press Herald's Monday issue (Dispatches, page B2, 8/21/06):

Portland: Explosion destroys mailbox, shuts down Old Port street

PORTLAND — An explosion destroyed a mailbox in the Old Port early Sunday, forcing police to shut down a section of West Commercial Street for six hours. Lt. Bob Ridge said a caller reported hearing a loud noise in the area of 75 West Commercial St. around 2 a.m.

When police arrived, they saw debris from a ruined U.S. Postal Service box for outgoing mail spread around the sidewalk and in the street, Ridge said. He said he could not identify the type of explosives used to destroy the mailbox.

Police called in a bomb squad to make sure there were no explosives stashed in the two other outgoing mailboxes nearby - one UPS, the other FedEx, Ridge said. Ridge said the bomb squad gathered evidence, found no other explosives and reopened the closed stretch around 8 a.m.

Now, on the one hand it's good that it wasn't a residential mailbox, which was my first thought. On the other hand, whoever did this is in for a world of hurt if they get caught. Of all the stupid things to destroy, U.S. Postal Service stuff incurs the wrath of the label "federal offense" on the vandal. Yeah, I was bored, so I became a felon. Good move.