Homeowner concerned after Boynton Beach mailbox blown up

BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. - A Boynton Beach mother was jolted out of a sound sleep after there was an explosion outside her home. “Just the loudest noise I ever heard and I was really scared,” said Victoria Pierre-Louis, who bought her home a few months ago.

Victoria says she heard two explosions outside her home on SW 10th Court around 3 a.m. Tuesday.

“The second one went off and it was the bang and the flash...a flash of light,” said Don Bashaw.

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Bashaw and his wife are visiting Victoria from Vermont. They said they thought it sounded like gunshots.

“It was just really scary. I felt like we were afraid for our lives a little bit that we didn’t dare move didn’t look out the window what’s going on is someone shot,” said Lauren Ridgway.

Victoria and her friends called police. Investigators say based off the smell, it’s believed fireworks were set off inside the mailbox. “Monday for some reason I came home and I walked straight in the house, and had I come to the mailbox I worry what would have happened, or if my son came to the mailbox,” Victoria said.

A pile of burnt mail was sitting on her kitchen table Wednesday. The edges of an envelope were fried, and catalogs and coupons were ripped apart. “It’s like why would someone blow up my mailbox, and so I’m just scared,” Victoria said.

Police say Victoria’s home was the only one hit. Now, she wants to know if she was targeted or if kids pulled a prank. “If this is a joke it’s not funny to people like me who now have to come home and worry about sleeping in my bed at night,” Victoria said.

There are a number of surveillance cameras outside several homes in the neighborhood, but it appears they didn’t catch anything. Victoria says she will be increasing security, but for now her son will be staying with loved ones nearby.

Boynton Beach Police are investigating and working to determine who is responsible for the explosion.