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.

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