Mailbox

Recounting the recent chase and arrest of two men suspected of mail theft, a U.S. postal inspector recommended that people take security matters into their own hands -- by putting locks on their rural roadside mailboxes.Inspector Larry Fryer said mail left in a roadside receptacle is vulnerable, and thefts are more prevalent than people think.The object often has been credit cards. Northern Baltimore County has been one of the hardest-hit areas. The latest arrests occurred there Thursday, in Glenarm, where officers had been on a stakeout for more than a week.

Two suspects were in custody last night and three others were being sought in the planting of small bombs that destroyed several mailboxes in Dundalk, Baltimore County police reported. In announcing the arrests of a man, 19, and a male juvenile, 17, police said they "believe the acts were random and the motive was thrill seeking." Names of the suspects were not immediately disclosed. Police said they knew of four small bombs placed in mailboxes in Dundalk over several days, but believed that there had been others and asked that people who found them contact the department.

Here's a tip on how to cope with the end of summer: Buy a bigger mailbox.Recognizing there's not much point pitching consumers while they're in vacation mode, the credit-card industry was eagerly awaiting the end of the Labor Day weekend to launch its second mass-marketing onslaught of the year, a push designed to tempt millions of borrowers to open or switch accounts before the holiday season."

The state fire marshal's office is seeking information in the pipe bombing of a roadside mailbox south of Westminster. The incident occurred about 8:30 p.m. Saturday, when a homeowner in the 2500 block of Nicodemus Road heard a noise, according to the investigator's report. Minor damage to the door of the large steel mailbox was discovered Sunday morning, with the remains of what appeared to be a pipe bomb inside, authorities said. Recovered was a 6-inch length of galvanized pipe, which was sent to the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms for analysis.

Police are looking for vandals who used a homemade bomb to blow up a mailbox in the 600 block of Pine Drive in Pasadena between 6 p.m. Wednesday and 7: 30 a.m. Thursday.Pieces of the black plastic mailbox were scattered around the street 15 feet from the post. In the rubble, police found a 1-liter plastic bottle with aluminum foil and an unknown liquid inside. They believe that the bomb was made with the plastic bottle.Police found a similar device shortly before 10 p.m. Wednesday at the intersection of Eighth Street and Riverside Drive in Pasadena.

The Harford County Sheriff's Office arrested yesterday four teen-agers accused of filling envelopes with a white powder and placing them in homeowners' mailboxes as a prank. The incidents occurred at 10 homes in the Abingdon subdivision of West Shore about 2 p.m. Tuesday, the sheriff's office said. The homes are in the 1000 blocks of Willow Bend Road and Lake Front Drive. The four youths, ranging in ages from 12 to 15, were charged with having a "phoney" destructive device, a misdemeanor, the sheriff's office said.

Sam Ashai is caught in the age-old struggle between man and mailbox. When the Clarksville resident found his box vandalized last year, he fixed it. When it was torn off and dumped into a streambed, he retrieved it. When it was damaged again, he strengthened it, replaced it and finally - two months ago - built a 3-foot-tall concrete fortress around it. Nothing worked. This is the wordless, faceless battle that rural folks know only too well, a "sport" called mailbox baseball because the typical weapon of choice is a bat. Considered by police and postal employees to be an activity of bored teen-agers, it has frustrated homeowners for as long as anyone can remember.

An 87-year-old Pennsylvania man retrieving mail from his mailbox only yards north of the Maryland line near Lineboro was struck Monday by a pickup truck and died a short time later, Pennsylvania State Police said.John Kuchtiak of Glen Rock, Pa., was taken by helicopter to a trauma center in York, Pa., where he died soon after the 4: 14 p.m. accident.According to Pennsylvania troopers, a 1986 Chevrolet pickup truck driven by Steven C. McElrath, 55, of Brodbecks, Pa., was traveling west on Glenville Road east of Black Rock Road when the driver said he was blinded by the setting sun.The truck driver braked and swerved when he saw Kuchtiak, but was unable to avoid striking the man, who was standing in the road in front of his mailbox.

An Elkridge woman has been charged with theft, fraud and forgery in connection with a case that Howard County police say could involve as many as 30 victims. The woman, police said, is accused of stealing unsent mail from mailboxes and removing checks, which then were made out to a fictitious name and cashed. Mary Elizabeth BeCraft, 22, of the 6500 block of Vert Drive has been charged in one case. But Howard County police spokeswoman Sherry Llewellyn said investigators are looking into complaints of stolen mail and expect more people will come forward.

Carnell Dawkins, manager of a Mail Boxes Etc. branch in midtown Manhattan, remembers when David Russell set up an account to receive his mail there, but Russell was never seen and rarely used the box. "He never received much mail, maybe one piece," said Dawkins, who didn't think that was strange because overseas customers occasionally open accounts to establish a U.S. address. "It was only open for about three months and then he just disappeared." David Russell, federal prosecutors say, never existed.