I will warn those here for freebies and deals that this post has NOTHING whatsoever do with that! I am on a mission, a detective mission. I know that there are several people who live near me that check out this website occasionally, so this is both my
interrogation of them and my complaint!
We have a neighbor who I will call "X", our driveways are
directly next to each other except for a small strip of grass about 12 inches wide. His mailbox is on that small strip of grass. If you look at the other homes with next to each other driveways none of them have a mailbox planted in that little strip except
our neighbor. Needless to say I have hit the mailbox 2 times while pulling into my driveway, I have a big beat up 1998 Nissan Quest, to say we need a new car is an understatement, both times the
mailbox was sort of knocked over, I got out and positioned it back into place. Que last Monday, I drive home from picking my boys up at school and see X's mailbox beyond crooked, someone definitely hit it, I know it was not me, I would admit it and would also fix it and my husband drove a taxi in NYC for 10 + years, so even if he was within millimeters of the box he would have known how to avoid hitting it. I said to my boys right away "oh heck, look at X's mailbox, I hope I don't get blamed for it".
La
de da, we go one with our week,
Que Thursday, the box is still completely crooked, I hope the mailman
doesn't have a bad back as he had to crouch and lean in some advanced yoga position to get the mail in the box, well X pulls into his driveway same time as us. We are in the car getting
book bags and stuff to bring in and X comes over and says in a super snippy tone "Do you think you can have your husband fix my mailbox since you hit it?". I was both surprised and not surprised, not surprised because I predicted I would get the blame, but surprised at his tone, especially in front of my kids, it was uncalled for and even they asked later "what stick is up his
heiny" (and yes I am that mom who blames the other kids, these are the phrases my son learns in school, ah the power of a public education! Because you know my kids are angels right? Right...???). So I calmly told X that my husband will fix it but neither of us hit the mailbox, and I noticed it the other day and again, I said I swear I was not the one who hit it, both times I hit it I let him know. Then he tells me, well I see the scratches on the side of your car, how did they get there? Ha, ha, ha, if I was not still in my pj's and lazy right now I would take a photo of my car, I said to X, the scratches? Which ones, the ones on the roof, the hood, the sides, like I said my car is not pretty, if anything the only damage it has done recently to his mailbox is dirty it up with the massive amount of environmentally unfriendly exhaust that sputters out when I start up.
So rather than say
OK or sorry for being rude he just turned and walked away and started fixing the box himself, now from the angle it looked as if someone stood in front of the box and pushed it straight back. Had I hit it, whether pulling in or out of the driveway it would have been on an angle the way it leaned, so right there it should have
been obvious I did
not do it. I know he has had issues with a lawn guy who walks around, maybe he did it? So I asked a few neighbors if they saw or heard anything and no one knows, now if someone on my block does read this and knows what happened or if you hit the box, let me know! I will not rat you out I promise, I just want to know who I took the fall for. I feel like the mob scapegoat who does the time for the guilty, except I am not getting paid a cool million for it.