435 Milan mailboxes broken into

Just before midnight last night, I arrived home to find two mailboxes at 435 Milan open. One of them had a key stuck in the lock. I'm sending a note to Tony at Peachtree and informing the post office.

Elbert

Thanks for the notice!

I inserted the key into my mailbox and it opened without turning the key because the tab was broken off, but I couldn't remove the key. I spoke to Tony at Peachtree and he was very responsive. Told me he was coming out to inspect the damage the following day (was last THU). He called me that afternoon to let me know there was no damage to the mailbox, just the lock and unfortunately for me the lock is the homeowner's responsibility because I own the keys. He gave me the phone number of a guy named Mailbox Willy (510.385.7345). I called Mailbox Willy who left me a voice mail to let me know it is easy to make this repair myself.

- he told me to go to the hardware store, purchase a mailbox lock (went to Orchard Supply on Milpitas Blvd and it cost $6.99)
- remove the clip holding the old mailbox lock in place
- insert the new mailbox lock (I needed to remove the nut holding the tab and then reinstall the nut and tab after inserting into the mailbox door)
- reinstall the clip

It took about 5 minutes. Now I need to go to the post office and give them a copy of my key and I will be done.

Not happy I had to do this, but hopefully you will find it as easy as I did if you face the same unfortunate situation.

Mike

Are you sure you need to give a key to the post office? They have the master key that opens up the whole panel.

Thanks for the information about the process. It might come in handy for someone else one day.

It's good to hear that Tony is responsive.

Actually, I don't know if I need to give a key to the post office, I was going to ask them. But now that you mention it, it would not make any sense if they carried around copies of hundreds of mailbox keys.