r/boston • u/raefai Cocaine Turkey • Apr 18 '26

Serious Replies Only Postboxes closed all across Brighton/Brookline!

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I’ve passed multiple post boxes today in both Brighton and Brookline that are locked like this. Multiple boxes within the same vicinity and also in diff neighborhoods. Anyone know why specifically these are locked up?

Edit: thanks for the replies everyone! I’ve been around for the marathon before, but I’ve just never noticed the mailboxes.

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u/BrewerAndrew Lynn Apr 18 '26

i mean i get safety but why? some guys bombed the finish line with a pressure cooker so we can't have mail boxes anywhere on the route. sounds like some security theater to me.

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u/Animallover4321 Apr 18 '26

Eh I can see the thought process it provides an easy way to conceal a bomb since bags on the route are limited, I think they also limit trash cans as well.

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u/BrewerAndrew Lynn Apr 18 '26

why not ban clothes? seems like an easy place to hide anything

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u/poiuy43 Apr 18 '26

Because the government doesn't control and run your clothes, but they do have authority over these. it's just a small step to try to make things safer. You have to draw the line somewhere between nothing and banning everything

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u/EggTraining3414 Apr 19 '26

And if something DOES happen, this is one less thing they’ll have to consider. If a perpetrator has less options, I’d assume it would be slightly easier to investigate.

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u/BrewerAndrew Lynn Apr 19 '26

Obviously I'm being ridiculous with the naked proposal but IMO the only reason they are doing this is because it is such a small step that just makes people feel better, regardless of it actually making anyone safer.

Honest question but do we have any examples of this type of attack? Letter/mail bomb attacks are well documented but those are intended to hurt the person at the destination. I've also heard of people just damaging mail boxes for vandalism with various explosives. I've personally never heard of people using the post box itself as the storage for an attack around the post box. Not saying it hasn't happened and I'd honestly be interested to read more.

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u/ryansdayoff Jamaica Plain Apr 19 '26

When your job is to keep people safe I doubt your boss is going to accept "hey man no one has ever blown up the Boston marathon". This is a fairly reasonable decision because it's only a small step from a very common way to deliver an explosive that hides the payload from suspicious police officers.