By DAVE HAMRICK
Staff Writer

Pauline Pullan is mad and getting madder.

Her mailbox is on the ground — again — and it looks like there isn't much anyone can do about it.

“You parents better be aware of where your children are and get the cars away from them,” the Tillman Road resident warned.

Mailbox vandalism is nothing new to Fayette County residents. And Pullan is right... it's usually teenagers out for a little thrill who do the damage, according to Sheriff Randall Johnson.

“The only time you ever catch them is if you just happen to be there when it happens,” Johnson told The Citizen. “I wish I could give her a solution to stop it.”

He told of one incident in which an officer was watching traffic when he heard a series of loud bangs, spaced a few seconds apart, and getting louder and louder. A car came over the hill loaded with teens, one of whom was taking a swing at each mailbox with a baseball bat.

If teens are repeatedly targeting an area, a stakeout can sometimes yield the desired results, Johnson said. He encourages residents experiencing vandalism to give the Sheriff's Department a call.

“Monument” style mailboxes — massive structures built to withstand your average baseball bat attack — have sprung up throughout the county as a defense against the vandalism, but county ordinances now prohibit them because of safety issues.

The problem, as far as Pullan is concerned, is that parents don't look after their kids.

At the age of 80 and widowed, she said, “I can't go out there and build a new mailbox. I can't even hammer a nail. I can't see it.

“I'm aggravated,” Pullan said. “Parents don't really care what their kids are doing as long as they're out of their hair. But they need to pay attention because we residents are going to be ready to blow their tires out.

“I think they need to know what their little hot pants are doing,” she added.