Mysterious colored dots on our mailboxes just showed up the last day or two. What are these about?

yours truly | 8-28-11 | rawhide

[rawhide]

What are these about? Somebody has put mysterious dots on the mailboxes in my subdivision in the last day or two. These are thick reflective dots about an inch in diameter. The one dot on my mailbox is yellow. My next door neighbor has a red dot. My other next door neighbor has 3 green dots. Neighbor down the street has 2 greens and a blue on theirs. They are on both sides of the mailbox, stuck right onto the mailbox itself, not the post. I drove a little throughout the town and many mailboxes have no dots on their mailbox, while their next door neighbor has the dot(s).

[rawhide]

I plan to do this! But still would like to know the reason.

[foundedonpurpose]

This is sad the DSIT is a .gov website. Take one, or all off and use a razor to see if they have RFID chips in them. Let us know.

[Truth29]

“The guy down the street who has 2 green dots, a blue and a red, what does he get?”

Can't answer that without knowing the specific system used by your delivery services, but there are three colors/dot combinations possible for most newspapers: daily, daily plus weekend, and weekend only.

[The_Media_never_lie]

You should not be concerned at all unless you find a red and green dot at your house.

[pyx]

I would have thought that NO DOTS meant, no newspaper. After all, the newspaper company should have to pay in some way for coloring your mailbox of using your mailbox on your property to afix their indicators. The "payment" for the space to put the dots is the benefit of the newspaper(s).

[Ueriah]

Add a differant colored dot, and wait to see who looks at it puzzledly.

[BobL]

Do you own a gun?

[bigjoesaddle]

[Salvavida]

Teens preparing the field for night time mailbox baseball.

[Lady Lucky]

Your mailboxes have boxpox. Consult FEMA and the CDC immediately. Garage doors and trash cans can get it.

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

The HOA Nazis have determined that you are receiving “unacceptable” mail?

[DouglasKC]

Yup...as many others said they are there from newspaper delivery people. Different papers use different reflectors to know who to deliver to without having to constantly check addresses. Speeds up delivery for those who are paid by how many papers they deliver.

[CGASMIA68]

why don't you ask the newspaper/mail carrier or the cops?
In my area before leaving for Fl for 6 months, the paper guy did it to tell who was away/out of town and to not deliver.
I rode around and noticed them on other newspaper tubes.
I called the paper and told them I wasn't thrilled about advertising my absence with a reflective dot and to remove the dot.
He said he couldn't it was their system.I went out and pulled the newspaper tube out of the ground and called the same guy and told him to pick up his “tube” and cancel the paper permanently.

[BigCinBigD]

Yellow? You are scheduled for arrest pick up in phase II.

[Average Al]

LOL! I was thinking something like that myself. It also could be an indication of what they found when they scanned the home with their new not so secret home scanning trucks.

[cripplecreek]

I’m off the grid. I don’t have a mailbox at my home.

[This I Wonder32460]

I agree, I wouldn’t doubt they have a system like that in place. And of course, in their minds they are so much more intelligent then the rest of us that they would doubt our powers of observation and they would assume their system wasn’t obvious to anyone but them. lol

Now seriously, I was reading somewhere that either gangs or would be thieves have been using symbols to mark their marks. Such as an arrow means seldom home and an X means home all day, etc. After observing they place a mart as a way to determine the best time of day, if any to target your home. Not sure if they would use dots that way, but that is the first thing I thought of. And if I remember it correctly what I read, this has been done in places in Europe over the last several years though not with dots.

[CGASMIA68]

what about suspend/vacation?

[ken5050]

The fact that MOST mailboxes have NO dots shows just how bad the newpaper business is. 20 years ago, eevn 10..nearly EVERY home in most suburbs got one paper, if not two..

I finally stopped the NY Times about 2002..because most mornings it wan't even delivered by the time I was leaving for the office..and I could read it pnline anyways

[ken5050]

The fact that MOST mailboxes have NO dots shows just how bad the newpaper business is. 20 years ago, eevn 10..nearly EVERY home in most suburbs got one paper, if not two..

I finally stopped the NY Times about 2002..because most mornings it wan't even delivered by the time I was leaving for the office..and I could read it pnline anyways