Santa Cruz family on edge after mailbox explosion

A local family’s metal mailbox was blown to pieces after someone set off an explosive device inside of it.

Luckily no one was close to the mailbox when it happened, so there were no injuries. But the family told KION it’s an unsettling feeling when this type of thing happens, especially with kids in the house.

“We just feel like this act was complete violence,” says Wendi Coughlin who lives in the house where it happened.

Late Saturday night neighbors in the Delaveaga area heard a loud boom.

“It could have seriously injured somebody. I have friends that live over near Market Street and TJ’s, they heard it, that’s way to far for somebody to hear just a firework. It had to be something bigger than that,” said Coughlin.

Coughlin is a mother of two, she said she and her husband came out to find their mailbox had been blown to pieces.

“Our mailbox was completely gone, the only thing that was left was the pole, and the top of the mailbox was flattened. We found pieces in our neighbor’s yard, we found pieces 25 feet away,” said Coughlin.

Adding to the already scary situation, Coughlin runs a daycare out of her home. She said thankfully it happened during off hours, but her children were still home. “It intensifies it because once again it’s children. You just don’t mess with innocent children.”

One neighbor said he saw a beige Audi A4 speeding away from the scene that night right after the explosion.

Santa Cruz police said they are looking into the case and others similar.“I know there was one two hours before that where a loud explosion was heard, and evaluate is this an ongoing problem, or is this a singular incident. If so who did it and find out from there,” said Santa Cruz Police Chief Andy Mills.

Chief Mills said when we get into summer months the department gets more calls similar to this one. While the investigation continues, he wants to remind the community to stay vigilant if you see anyone suspicious, report it.

Coughlin says she has a message for the people who did this, “I hope they think about what they’ve done. They might have kids someday maybe it will take that for them to understand how hurtful that is and scary for children, for a parent. They might have nieces or nephews, what if it happened to them? their parents would be pretty bummed if something happened to them.”