MOSGIEL MAILBOX REDECORATED EVERY MORNING — COUNCIL SUSPECTS A CODE
Nobody's seen the decorator. The postie's stopped asking.
A mailbox on a quiet Mosgiel street has been redecorated every morning for nine weeks. The Dunedin City Council has confirmed it is "looking into whether it qualifies as art or signage."
The mailbox belongs to Lorraine Petticrew, 71. It has appeared as a lighthouse, a bumblebee, a Highlanders jersey, a wedge of brie, and on one Tuesday, the late Queen. Lorraine says she has nothing to do with it. "I come out for the paper and there's a new one. Yesterday it was a kingfisher! I almost didn't want to open it for the power bill."
Neighbour Daphne Wilkins walks her schnauzer past the box twice daily. She reckons she's onto something. "There's a pattern. Brie on a Tuesday, bee on a Thursday. My grandson's at the uni doing computers and he says it could be a code!"
A council spokesperson said the decorations were "not technically in breach of any bylaw we can locate." They added that if the mailbox displayed "a flag of a foreign power", they'd revisit it. Nobody from council has actually been out to look.
The postie, Janine — I ran into her at Mosgiel Mitre 10 on Saturday, she knows Mel from the Bakehouse! — said she'd given up finding the slot. "I just leave the mail under a rock now. Lorraine knows."
As of this morning the mailbox is a small replica of the Mosgiel water tower. Lorraine has stopped checking. "Bit of colour, isn't it. Better than the Hendersons' one, which is just a bucket."
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Reader Letters
Garry (Halswell)
Back in my day, we didn't need fancy mailboxes. Just got letters from the postie and that was that. All this art nonsense nowadays.
Margaret_F
It's Lorraine's mailbox, so if she doesn't mind, why should anyone else? Sometimes a tiny bit of joy is just what a street needs.
Trev_Hornby
Council will probably turn it into a tourist site next. 'Come see the mysterious mailbox of Mosgiel!' They'll charge a fee and build a carpark. Just watch.
BarryBishopdale
This is a piss-take, right? Who's got time to redecorate a mailbox every day? Bet it's the Hendersons just trying to one-up everybody.
Sandra_1973
Why isn't the council out there solving this mystery? All those rates for more meetings and hot air. Typical.
Daphne_W
You all laugh, but as I mentioned, it's definitely a code! If mailboxes start disappearing, you'll realise I was right!
couchgremlin
Lol Mosgiel's own Banksy.