Dear Amy: My wife and I recently purchased our first home. The previous residents were an elderly couple who passed away.
When we bought the house we did not know that the couple’s daughter and her husband and two teenage daughters were our neighbors across the street.
We had never seen them outside, and they never introduced themselves.
We made a lot of exterior changes to the house, as it was pretty old and dated.
As we started making changes, we noticed the daughter and her family taking notice.
A few months ago, we got an anonymous note in our mailbox, saying that the changes were “ugly,” “too modern” and that it looked “cheap.”
Now we’re the victims of more petty harassment. Someone keeps throwing eggs at our windows and it’s pretty common to have our mailbox filled with rocks or dirt.
What do you think?
— Nervous Neighbor
Dear Nervous: The following is quoted from the U.S. Postal Inspection website (https://postalinspectors.uspis.gov/): “Mailboxes are considered federal property, and federal law (Title 18, United States Code, Section 1705), makes it a crime to vandalize them (or to injure, deface or destroy any mail deposited in them). Violators can be fined up to $250,000, or imprisoned for up to three years, for each act of vandalism.”
