BONITA SPRINGS, Fla.- The Lee County Sheriff's Office arrested three men for throwing explosives into mailboxes.
Alexander Dovi, 21, Allen Demler, 18, and Hunter Bates, 18, were arrested after the admitted to deputies they were driving around blowing up mailboxes in one Bonita Springs neighborhood.
Rick Behrens, who's lived off Shangri-La Road for 13 years, said nothing like this has ever happened there before.
He showed Fox 4 what used to be his mailbox.
It was blown off the post and looked like a mangled piece of metal.
Detectives said a mix of rubbing alcohol and chlorine was put into a Powerade bottle and thrown into Behren's mailbox, along with two others.
"Angry. Very angry. Thugs. They're thugs," Behrens said.
He said around 8 o'clock Tuesday night he heard a loud popping noise.
"We weren't sure what it was. We thought somebody backfired on a car," Behrens said.
Less than a mile away, Pamela Baker's mailbox was also hit.
"I heard a loud boom, like a firecracker sound, and didn't think twice about it because it's spring break, so I assumed the kids were firecrackering around," Baker said.
She wants to know what the three men were thinking.
"Now there's three guys, young men, that have ruined their lives... for a prank? It's just so senseless," Baker said.
Behrens said he's glad it wasn't worse.
"I'm lucky I didn't go and check the mail at 8 o'clock last night and put my hand in there. Who knows, I may not of had my hand right now," he said.
Tampering with a mailbox is a federal crime and anyone convicted could be sentenced to up to three years for each act of vandalism.
These men are facing three counts because three mailboxes were blown up.
