secure postbox and seal up letterbox

winalot

hi there
have moved to a new place and had a couple of attempted burglaries over xmas so am trying to cover every avenue to prevent them.
we have a letterbox in our upvc door we want to seal up (metal) but can't find info anyhwere on how you do this - we will never need ot use it - has anyone done this or know how to go about it.
also i can reach inot our outside wall postbox and take mail out with my fingers without key unlocking it. are there more (totally?) secure outside mail boxes available or ways to make standard boxes theft proof ?
thanks for any help or advice !

d123

for the letterbox in the door, I drilled 2 very small holes in the flap (2mm I think) and then used some fine wire looped through the holes and fixed to a screw on the inside to seal it closed. I know it's secure as I seem to get Posties who can't read (when our regular one is off) who ignore the notice saying "POSTBOX NOT IN USE" and the arrow showing the direction to the outside box, and almost pull my front door off it's hinges trying to open the flap.

I bought a secure wall mounted box at B&Q which allows most letter to fall deep enough not to be pulled back out through the slot.

Debt_Free_Chick

You can buy a letterbox with a hinged lid on the top - opens at the front and upwards - to reveal a thin slot.

The ones with the flap on the front tend to have a bigger apperture. Test before you buy

ormus

you can buy metal boxes to fit behind the post flap on a front door.
either mesh or solid. i dont know how to fix it securely/neatly to a upvc door though?

thinking out loud here:
might be better to make a solid flap out of a piece of plastic and superglue it in place?
ie cut a white dinner tray to shape???

moonrakerz

If you want to do something really useful to prevent break ins, could I suggest you look at this ?

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/498491/lock_bumping_in_the_news_san_francisco_3/

Hitch

I did this for someone a while ago.

I use 2 coach bolts with dome nuts on the back.

Drill two holes to suit, then file them square, on the outside flap.
The inside, drill 2 aligning holes. Put the coach bolts through both, then fit a dome nut on the inside. It was a chrome letterbox, so the zinc plated bolts looked fine, if yours is white, or black... you could just find a near colour in humbrol model paints and dab a bit on.