Drive-By Mailbox Smashing Typical of Dunedin Summer Crime Wave

Six teens were busted three weeks ago for smashing more than 70 mailboxes along several Dunedin neighborhood streets.

The minors were not even old enough to drive, Pinellas County Sheriff Deputy Spencer Gross told city leaders during a public meeting Thursday.

The recent arrests are only one example in Dunedin's typical uptick in summer car break-ins, bicycle thefts and vandalism from juveniles with little else to do while out of school. But it serves as a precautionary reminder for Dunedin residents, Gross said.

“We still have to be vigilant and lock our vehicles and lock our bicycles up,” he said. “And [call] if you see or hear things at night that you think may be suspicious. 'Cause we did have some people who say yeah, I heard what sounded like mailboxes being smashed but I just didn't call.”

Had residents called at the suspicious sounds, “we could have limited the number of mailboxes that were victimized,” he said.

Gross said the incident occurred during the early morning hours one Sunday a few weeks ago. Several teens, under 16 years old, took a parent’s car on a three- to four-hour joyride around Dunedin smashing mailboxes with a Louisville Slugger baseball bat from Copper Kettle Lane to Falcon Drive to San Salvador and Glenwood drives to Robmar Road, Gross said.

“When I came to work,” that morning, Gross said, “citizens of Dunedin were waking up finding their mailboxes knocked over.”

Deputies knocked door-to-door and quickly got some leads that tracked them to the responsible youths. Arrests were made by the end of the day, Gross said.

Gross said numerous arrests were also made earlier in the summer for a string of bicycle thefts, which led them outside of the city. Residents who live along the Pinellas Trail and south Dunedin are particularly soft targets for thefts, he said.

“Don't get me wrong, the majority of the juveniles in the community are not the problem,” he said. “It's the small minority of juveniles who are committing the crimes. … No different than any other summer.”