Postage Due, Return to Sender: Kids Lock Themselves in Mailboxes

Kids do the darndest and sometimes the dumbest things that can make parents and authorities crazy. There were no stamps of approval for two Austrian children who locked themselves in postal boxes in two separate incidents.

The incidents occurred in the villages of Schwarzach and Feldkirch in the westernmost province of Vorarlberg. Firefighters were called to the rescue in Schwarzach when an eight-year-old boy climbed into a mailbox and couldn’t get out. Adding to the angst, no one could find a key, so rescuers had to use welding torches and bolt cutters to free the boy, authorities said. A nearly identical incident in the same week occurred in nearby Feldkirch, when a four-year-old boy locked himself inside a large mailbox. Neither boy was hurt, but firefighters said they were frustrated by the antics of the children and shaking their heads that two such odd incidents happened within a week of each other in two small towns located a stamp's throw away from each other.