Attempted theft of listed GPO Letterbox at Vann

Written by Paul Osborne | 10 June 2012

On the night of 7/8 June thieves tried to steal this box. They rammed a jemmy of some sort vertically behind the door and succeeded in breaking a bit off the cast iron box and badly damaged the lock which happily held or they might have been able to break the bolts that retain it to the concrete post from the inside. Said the engineer who came to repair the damage “These boxes are now being sold on e-bay. Dating from a long while back the post office sold off unwanted boxes. Thieves are now adding to these and the boxes bear no identifiable markings.” “Ours” is a listed monument, with Edward the Seventh’s monogram. It was last removed for repainting for the millennium. Grandfather WD Caroe wanted a PO box and one was allocated to Vann on condition that there was enough usage, so he brought the office mail to Vann every Friday when they came for the week-end, and here it has stayed!

Mary Caroe 8/6/12