"Nancy2" > wrote in message
...
> Where the heck do you live, anyway? Any handyman or hubby can put a lock
> on a door. Even I can do it.
> Do you have an HOA that dictates locksmith only? I daresay in most parts
> of the US, it isn't against the
> law for anyone to put a lock on a door.

The Post Office is who dictates the keys. Perhaps it is different in
different states but here a homeowner can not buy a mailbox key. We don't
have HOA here.

A door and a mailbox are not the same thing. Even if you went out and
bought a mailbox, it wouldn't belong to you if you were using it for mail.
Belongs to the post office.

The postman refused to deliver any more mail to me with the unlocked box
because of our high crime rate here. He told me that I needed to call the
locksmith. And the locksmith confirmed that while you can buy locks that
look similar, they won't work with a mailbox.

The box that we have is a small one. There are several small ones all in
one unit. The mailman's key opens a big door on the back to access all of
those. If we get a package that is too big to fit in our individual box,
then it goes into one of two larger boxes. The mailman will put the key to
that box in our little box. The key is retained in the lock. Not sure how
the mailman gets them out but he does.