Valley Mailboxes Vandalized
Baseball season seems to be well under way in the Spokane Valley.
Mailbox baseball season, that is.
In the past few weeks, residents of several neighborhoods in the southern part of the Spokane Valley have found their mailboxes battered and broken. They are victims of mailbox baseball, a vicious prank involving players who drive through neighborhoods and smash mailboxes with baseball bats. Knocking a mailbox completely to the ground is considered a grand slam.
Ann Richey, copresident of University SCOPE, has spent the weeks since the first mailboxes were hit in her neighborhood quizzing teens she knows about the game.
“It’s a game high school kids play,” she said, adding that most of the teens she’s talked to have heard of it.
They have teams, keep points, check each other’s work and finish off mailboxes the other team missed, she said.
Three teenagers were arrested last weekend for vandalizing five mailboxes in the 10500 block of East 14th Avenue early Saturday morning, according to the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office.
A neighbor heard the sound of bats hitting mailboxes. She looked outside her home and saw car doors slam as a 1990 Chevrolet Lumina drove away.
Three boys - two 17-year-olds and a 16-year-old - were arrested near the scene and were charged with misdemeanor malicious mischief. In addition to the smashed mailboxes on East 14th Avenue, officials also linked them to damage done when a car was driven through the front yard of a home in the 9400 block of East Mission Avenue.
The youths were booked and then released to their parents.
Two baseball bats were found in the car.
The Sheriff’s Office is looking for similarities between these smashings and and others in recent weeks.
“I think there probably is a link,” said Sheriff’s Inspector David Wiyrick. “They (detectives) are going to continue looking into what the connection is between these and the other ones.”
Michael Feltman’s mailbox was one of those hit this weekend.
“I just think it’s kids being kids,” said Feltman, pointing out that he lives next to University High School, where a football game had taken place earlier on the night his mailbox was smashed.
Kids were probably cruising the neighborhood looking for targets, he said.
It was the second time his mailbox had been smashed in recent weeks.
The first time, he and neighbors shelled out $15 each to replace them. This time, they’ll wait for the postal inspector to come out and take pictures of the damage before replacing them.
Mailbox baseball will likely continue, Richey predicted. In fact, the recent arrests might be the first strike-out of the game.
“Mailbox baseball is done in teams,” said Richey. “It’s not over yet. They just got one group of the teens.”
Richey said she plans to learn all she can about the game so that the University SCOPE can help the Sheriff’s Office stop the vandalism. (SCOPE stands for Sheriff’s Community Oriented Policing Effort.)
The mailbox smashing was first reported Oct. 20 in the neighborhoods between Pines and Dishman-Mica roads in the southern part of the Valley. After the first spree, mailboxes have been hit in the area about once a week.
This sidebar appeared with the story: SCOPE OFFICE Forms available SCOPE officials suggest that those whose mailboxes have been vandalized stop by the University SCOPE office at 10621 E. 15th and pick up a federal complaint form provided by the U.S. Postal Service. Also, smashed mailboxes and any description of vehicles or suspects should be reported to Crime Check at 456-2233.