Sunday, September 29, 2013

Fog Of War

So when the fog lifts this morning homeowners along Pelham Road will have a sorry sight to behold


 Somebody left a trail of destruction, targeting innocent mailboxes as part of their drunken hijinks 

Mailbox down!

Meanwhile, not far from the scene of the crime, it looks like the boys at 807 Main Street had a party last night.  Hmm ...

807 Main Street (turns into Pelham Road)

27 comments:

Anonymous said...

Can't something be done about the rampant mailbox destruction? Last year my mailbox was taken- with mail in it.

BTW- The DPW should know better than to leave construction signs/ cones out over the weekend. Always a target!

Anonymous said...

I have seen where people have built a cinder block house around their mailbox. It's a nuisance but better than replacing a mailbox 2 or 3 times a year at $50 or more a pop.

Anonymous said...

What was that line about "chickens coming home to roost"?

Anonymous said...

My dad bought a mailbox that is designed to thwart these attacks. Looks like any normal tin mailbox but is made of much heavier stuff and is supposed to transfer the impact of the swing to the hands of the swinger. That one hasn't been knocked over yet.

-Anonymous Coward

Larry Kelley said...

Claymore mine would do the trick. (#sarcasm)

Anonymous said...

I understand that there are issues with rowdy behavior, however I think that it would be wise to discuss issues with your neighbors. If you believe that there is a problem then bring it up respectfully to the occupants. I'm sure that they are all considerate gentlemen who would be more than willing to have a discussion about safety and community well-being. Publishing photos and making false accusations is not addressing the issue straight on. It is instead "pussy footing" around the issue and only fostering further distrust between neighbors.

Larry Kelley said...

You must not have been paying attention over the past three years or so.

Walter Graff said...

Those vandalism proof mailboxes are great when installed properly. I've installed many of them and they work.

The brick version is called a pillar and you can have one installed with base and column for between $800-1500 depending on what you want. A bit more cumbersome but with brick one can fashion a cute looking mailbox.

Just make sure your mailbox is between tree-and-a-half and four feet and 6"-8" from curb or the post office might not deliver your mail.

Anonymous said...

Larry, you (and many others) are lucky you aren't dealing with me.

*I* would have responded by taking a picture of YOUR driveway and then Photoshopping all kinds of beer cans and related trash into the photo -- and then a picture of you lying on my driveway.

Or better yet, figured out when you folk aren't there, put actual beer cans in your driveway, and then both taken pictures of it and contacted other interested parties to do so -- who, not knowing otherwise -- likely would presume the legitimacy of it. Maybe even filed a complaint with the town about it.

Checkmate. Some folks, Larry, play even rougher than you do...

Larry Kelley said...

But I have God on my side.

Better yet, the truth.

Anonymous said...

Do it. SUE him.

Student Legal Services can represent you for free because he is neither a Municipality nor a Municipal employee, and he'll have to pay a couple grand for a defense attorney and have great fun explaining (a) how he knows who knocked over the mailboxes (a Federal offense, incidentally), (b) considers himself a good citizen and such, but (c) did not immediately notify the authorities (APD, USPS) upon observing or otherwise knowing the identity of the perps.

"But Mr. Kelly, why haven't you YET told the authorities who did this if you know they were attending a quiet social gathering at my client's house?"

"What proof do you have that it wasn't YOU who knocked the mailboxes over? I'm not saying you did, mind you, but my clients didn't either."

"Oh, Mr. Kelly ..."

Larry Kelley said...

Student legal services no longer represent students for free.

You're dating yourself.

Anonymous said...

The mailboxes are not being hit with a bat or other object- they are damaged by being forcefully manhandled...

Twisting/ removing the doors and flags, ripping the mailbox unit from its base, posts being pushed over or pulled from the ground.

*If* I had spare money for the mailbox issue- I would get a PO Box at the post office- not invest $800 (or more) to tempt the students to cause even more damage.

Anonymous said...

you are making wild accusations.....you have no proof who knocked down mailboxes and if you are ski sure then why don't you report it to the police??? yea why don't you because they would laugh you right out of the station.....you are a PERVERT!!!...going around taking pictures of college students' house's.....i do hope the occupants will speak to legal services at the university or the amherst police and find out their rights....or kelley go to the police and report the crime as you seem to know who did it...maybe it was you

Walter Graff said...

Unfortunately for you people are free in this country to take pictures of whatever they want as long as they are not trespassing.

If Larry stands in the street he can take all the pictures he wants of your house as long as it is not deemed stalking or harassing. One photo of your mess is not harassment nor stalking. You can ask that no pictures be taken all you want; but you can't prohibit the act.

And if Larry is Photoshopping beer cans than I will hire him. As someone who has worked on multimillion dollar special effects for film and television, I've never seen such a fantastic matte.

Walter Graff said...

Oh, one more thing, there is no law that requires a citizen to report a crime that they may have witnessed. There are some professions, like doctors and teachers, who must report crimes that they suspect but Larry could watch a rape and murder (even of a mailbox) and have no obligation to do anything but wonder about it.

Anonymous said...

Gee boys, I think you're overreacting. All Larry said is that it looks like you had a party. Nowhere does it say you did it...

Larry Kelley said...

Guilty mind speaks out?

Tom McBride said...

Pelham Road is a heavily traveled road, and Main St., ........well it's up the road. Anybody could of damaged those boxes. It happens all the time. I'm beating around the bush, but this is too much, there was a party and boxes were damaged. But there was no definitive connection. Even if a connection were made later, what would be the point connecting the incidents in a vague way now?

Anonymous said...

Noting that the party was ?near the scene of the crime" (even without the added "hmmm") is at least strongly implying causality.

And Walter, there is a difference between Larry's duty to report a crime (which there isn't) and his having a damn hard time in court explaining why he didn't if he was certain enough of the perps to imply that it was a certain group of young men who did it.

Particularly if said young men were suing him.

The Juggernaut said...

Actually Walter, stay in the "multimillion" dollar movie business. As a law student (with an undergrad from that "stupid" school UMass you always insult); MGL Chapter 268, Section 40 requires that "Section 40. Whoever knows that another person is a victim of aggravated rape, rape, murder, manslaughter or armed robbery and is at the scene of said crime shall, to the extent that said person can do so without danger or peril to himself or others, report said crime to an appropriate law enforcement official as soon as reasonably practicable. Any person who violates this section shall be punished by a fine of not less than five hundred nor more than two thousand and five hundred dollars."

Since Mr Kelley was photographing petty crimes, and only the aftermath, he has no right. But do not make such absurd claims please.

This was even poked fun at in Seinfeld.

Anonymous said...

These college kids are kids and that explains it all. Put a little booze in them and they become superman stronger than steel. They think they are impressing the female of the species. Every year we go through this and in the future they will do it again. Even if you catch them and can prove it in court, it won't be anything other than a waste of your time. Buy a $100.00 mail box mount it on a 3" pipe concreted in the ground and watch the show. It's really funny watching a drunk fight with a bullet proof mail box.

Larry Kelley said...

And be sure to mount a camera nearby (these days wireless digital security cameras with infra red are pretty cheap).

Walter Graff said...

"Whoever knows that another person is a victim of aggravated rape, rape, murder, manslaughter or armed robbery and is at the scene of said crime shall, to the extent that said person can do so without danger or peril to himself or others, report said crime to an appropriate law enforcement official "

It's also illegal to drive in the left lane of I91 unless you are passing. Laws like this only apply after the fact. The law you speak of was enacted in Mass after a tavern rape, the same story that was made into a movie with Jodie Foster. It is specific to certain crimes but does not cover the scope of all crimes like imagine mailboxes or throwing trash on a street.

And then it is a law that like I said might only come into play after the fact when prosecutors do not have enough witnesses in such a case and know there are more potential witnesses. It's an intimidation law. Even then you'd only face a $500 fine up to $2500.

I doubt the law will ever come into play in the real world and if it did, civil liberties lawyers would be all over it as it crosses the line of social control. It's the only law of its kind in the country. As I said it was a reactionary law based on a rape case where prosecutors had no witnesses even though the bar had quite a few patrons that witnessed the crimes.

You may be a law student but eventually you'll learn how the system and laws work if you ever make it in the real world. I learned as a police officer some years ago in NY State.

Fear not folks, no one is going to come knock down your door if you witness a crime and don't report it.

Anonymous said...

Oh Wally SHUT UP. All you do spew bullshit on every topic you belch about. What is is your issue? Even if you did know what you were talking about, no one would listen after everything else you made up. Why don't you start your own blog so you can read your own words of wisdom, because that is truly what this is all about. You feel compelled to prove your manhood because some women beat you down and everybody knows it.

Anonymous said...

"Fog of War" is actually quite accurate. It is a war and lots of innocent civillians are in the middle of it. Sucks to be them.

Punks, drunks and Ponziville pyramiders said...

"You feel compelled to prove your manhood because some women beat you down and everybody knows it."


Never mind Walter there granny.

70,000 readers of this blog'd rather know how ~you~ felt when Catherine Sanderson was kicking your Prozac slurping can to the curb, day after day after day...


Mind telling us?

(you still haven't gotten over that ~slam-a-thon~, have you LOL?)