Mailboxes target of area teens

By Barry Porterfield
Staff Writer

June 27, 2008 10:47 am

— Four teenage boys are now paying the price for a series a weekend mailbox bashings in the rural areas just outside of Wynnewood.
It appears some talking and a few questions among Wynnewood residents led to the suspects revealing their guilt as they later literally turned themselves in at Wynnewood’s post office and to the postmaster herself.
Garvin County deputies confirmed all the boys are 16 or 17 years old and each is from Wynnewood.
Those officials said they were told in statements by the teens their idea was a spontaneous one to start destroying mailboxes during the late Saturday night hours of June 21.
When they were done a total of 13 mailboxes that nearly encircled the outer portions of Wynnewood were either damaged or destroyed.
Now the matter has been turned over to Juvenile Services officials as the youth face the allegations of destroying property with a variety of items that include incendiary devices in the form of heavy-duty fireworks.
It was Postmaster Laura Kinard who first contacted the Sheriff’s Department about the vandalisms.
By Tuesday she had more details, including the fact one of the mailboxes appeared to have been damaged by an explosion from inside.
Hours later deputies were dispatched to the post office as the process of finding the culprits began to unravel.
Although the estimated number of the mailboxes destroyed varied, the teens claimed to use a baseball bat, crowbar and even what were described as “artillery shell” fireworks to do the damage.
The teens were apparently not planning to attack any mailboxes as they claimed to have initially traveled to PV for some fireworks.
According to one of the teens, some of those fireworks were thrown in a nearby river. Afterwards the mailbox destruction began.
Reports show three of the subjects might have been drinking alcohol when the acts were committed.
It’s believed the teens will likely face juvenile sentences that include community service and paying back the owners of the mailboxes.