You've Got Mail!

We have had bad luck when it comes to taxi drivers and our house.  Last year, Dave took a taxi from the airport when he was coming back from a work trip.  The taxi driver dropped him off, but as he was pulling back down the driveway, the taxi fell into the culvert!!  The driver was not able to get the vehicle out of the ditch, so Dave ended up having to drive the guy home in our car.  Meanwhile there was a taxi stuck in our front yard.  A few hours later, we heard a tow truck come and pull the taxi out. 

Then again in April, when I (Julia) was on my way to the airport to go to Turkey, the taxi driver picked me up, and when he was backing out of the driveway, he ran OVER our mailbox.  I was on my Blackberry so I didn't notice, but he told me that he ran over the mailbox and I should call his company's insurance company to file a claim if there are damages.  

Because I didn't see the taxi run over the mailbox, I had no idea the extent of the damage that it caused.  A few days later, the neighborhood association sent out an email that there were reports of mailbox vandalism on our street.  Little did they know that the "vandalism" was actually caused by a taxi and a bad driver. 

After I got back from my trip to Turkey, I called the taxi company's insurance company and filed a claim for the mailbox damages.  Their insurance company actually sent out an adjuster to inspect the mailbox!  A few weeks pass and finally I got a check in the mail for a little over $100 to replace the entire mailbox. 

Notice in the picture on the right we used a large rock to prop up the mailbox so the poor mail carrier doesn't have to deal with our super crooked mailbox. 

As you can see in the picture below, the taxi actually broke the post that was securing the mailbox to the ground: 

When we got the check in the mail, we went to Home Depot and picked out a new mailbox and post.  After only about an hour, Dave had this beauty up: 

The whole mailbox replacement actually cost less than what the insurance company gave us, mainly because they added in labor costs, and of course, our labor was FREE!  As you can see, there is already a small dent on the side of the mailbox.  Not sure how that got there, but we're happy that the mailbox is still standing, at least!  Notice that the rock is now hanging out behind the mailbox post.  Did you know that the U.S. Postal Service has specific regulations about how far your mailbox should come out and how tall it should be? See Residential Mailbox Standards.  I'm sure our mail carrier is thanking us for following the standards so that he can just easily deliver our mail from his little white truck!