Hoodlums in Acton

I was greeted this morning in my lovely affluent town by a vandalized mailbox.

Our mailbox (which was crummy and old to begin with) had been vandalized some time during the night while we slept peacefully and unkowingly in our house. The post of the mailbox is made from somewhat rusty wrought iron. Some hoodlums thought it would be funny to bend the thing all the way down to the ground. We just bent it right back up and it doesn't look much worse than it did before. We weren't the only victims. Many mailboxes along our street were hit as well. Some were outright smashed beyond repair.

I called the police to report the incident, but I don't think they can really do anything about it. Next week though I'll probably read my own police report in the local paper.

This is actually the second time I've called the Acton police this week. The first time was on Monday, when I noticed a cluster of small swastikas drawn on the inside of a rain shelter at the commuter rail station. Again I don't think the police can really do anything about it, but they should know none-the-less. I hope it gets painted over. I haven't checked since I first saw them.

I guess if that's the worst that's happened to us in Acton in the year that we've lived here, things aren't so bad. But now I worry about my car and my garden. You can hit my mailbox with a baseball bat, but if you even think about harming my garden, I'm gonna get mad. That is a threat.