HOPEWELL TOWNSHIP, Pa. — The Hopewell Volunteer Fire Department is looking for the person allegedly seen on camera driving into their mailbox before driving away Wednesday night.
Dan Caton, the president of the Hopewell Volunteer Fire Department, was working on one of their trucks with two other firefighters around 7 p.m. Wednesday. They looked outside and saw their mailbox was knocked over on the ground.
“We went over, checked it out, tried to stand it back up, and it wouldn’t stand up,” Caton said. “All bent, the door’s busted off, all smashed.”
They went back inside and pulled surveillance video from the parking lot.
In the video provided to Channel 11, you see a dark gray or silver Honda pull into the parking lot from Gringo Clinton Road and turn around. It then drives back toward the road.
Video from inside the station shows the car drive right into the mailbox and drive away.
“They knew they hit it, and we have the video, and it showed it going right down the side of their car. There’s got to be some type of damage,” Caton said. “They knew they hit it.”
The department relies on donations to keep operations going.
“We don’t need to be paying for a mailbox, which is probably going to run us anywhere from $500 to $700 to have it installed and replaced,” Caton said.
This mailbox is more than just a place to get mail. It’s also a place where donations are left, and it’s all under lock and key.
“Donations and mail to the station, stuff from the state,” Caton said. “We have to have a key to get into it. It can’t be accessed from the outside.”
The fire department is urging whoever’s responsible to “do the right thing” in the next three days, or they will go to the police and file criminal charges.
“All I’m asking for is just the person who did it, you know you did it. Fess up, come replace the mailbox,” Caton said. “If not, and we find out from the police department pulling video off the highways, if they come up with something, then you’re going to be charged, and it’s going to cost you a heck of a lot more.”
If you have any information, you’re asked to call the Hopewell Volunteer Fire Department.
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