Investigation into mailboxes damaged by city snow plow turns up empty

Last month a City snow plow took out nearly thirty blocks of mailboxes along Normal Boulevard in Lincoln.

The incident happened between February 16th and 17th and spanned from 32nd Street all the way to 60th Street along Normal.

After investigating the incident for nearly a month the City said they don’t know which snow plow driver caused the damage.

In a statement to Channel 8 Eyewitness News Chris Connolly, the acting City Attorney, said “It is confirmed that more than one driver was involved in the mailbox incident.” 

Connolly went on to say the same snow plow was driven by two or three drivers along that route as their shifts rotated making it impossible for the City to determine which driver did the damage.

The investigation did identify when each driver was in the snow plow, but left the City unable to determine when each mailbox was hit.

Connolly said all they could determine was that over a 12-24 hour period the damage occurred. 

Affected homeowners were encouraged to file a claim with the City, but were later told those claims would not be paid.

Connolly said while he’s sympathetic to the affected homeowners, putting a mailbox up comes with risks. 

“The position we’ve always taken is that it’s at the risk of the property owner that something may happen and city ordinance also relieves us for those kinds of damages,” Chris Connolly, the acting City Attorney, said.

Connolly will present the claims to the City Council and they will determine if the City should pay for the damaged mailboxes. 

If the claims are denied homeowners can sue the City to try and get their claims paid for.