I wonder why no one ever calls the police on me.

Several times a week I’m called upon to replace a mailbox lock for which the key has been lost. I usually end up standing at the community mailbox cluster for some number of minutes picking the lock and then swapping it out for a new one. I always encourage my customers to wait in the comfort of their homes for me to arrive with a new set of mailbox keys (mostly because I don’t like people hovering as I work). As I stand at the mailbox with my unmarked cargo van just a few feet away, neighbors will walk, drive, bike, and jog by me, but no one ever stops to say anything to me about trying to break into a mailbox.

Once a customer called me because her mailbox had been pried open and her mail stolen. As I worked on replacing that lock, a neighbor from a few houses down came out into the street and filmed me with his cell phone until, when I noticed what he was doing, I smiled and waved. He scowled and scuttled back into his house. After I finished the job, I armed myself with a business card and walked by the two Hummers and the Porsche in his driveway en route to his front door. No one answered when I knocked.

Another time one of my regular clients sent me to change the locks on a condominium she was managing. The keys had been lost and I had to pick the lock to get in. This was the middle of the day and it was not a particularly easy lock, so I was conspicuously trying to get into this apartment for quite a few minutes. The neighbor across the hall cracked his door and crankily asked me what I was doing. I explained the situation and offered him a business card. No need, he told me, holding up his hand. He’d already taken down my license plate number.

These instances were rare exceptions in which people noticed me working near their homes. I want neighbors to be curious. Just as I’d want my own neighbors to take an interest if they saw a stranger poking around my home, I wish that people would inquire once in a while as to why I’m trying to gain access to a mailbox or a house on their road.

It’s alright for folks to lead with friendliness, though. I’m not a very imposing guy. Nobody needs to show their teeth when approaching me. I’m probably less threatening than your average 97-year-old WWII veteran, though perhaps a little more so than his osteoporosis-ridden wife. I’d say the average Vietnam vet could thrash me with ease.

I don’t wish to be attacked as I work — not physically by old war veterans, and not verbally by cranky window watchers. But I would like to see that people have enough interest in the well-being of their neighbors to politely question why I’m doing something a little suspicious on their streets. Unfortunately, the reality seems to be that that kind of behavior is not very common. Neighbors tend not to be the best line of defense against burglaries and mail theft. I would guess that this is doubly true for those who don’t take the time to meet their neighbors.