The U.S. Postal Inspection Service is offering a $10,000 reward for any information regarding a pipe bomb that blew up a mailbox on Fallen Leaf Lane about midnight on Dec. 31.
The device exploded and completely destroyed the mailbox, said postal inspector B.A. Saluta. A vehicle belonging to a neighbor, parked about 75 feet away, was damaged when hit by fragments from the device.
The bomb "blew our mailbox clear across the street into our neighbor's back yard," said Claudia Montalbam. "We feel it is retaliation and intimidation."
The Montalbams, parents of three young children, have not been happy with the number of speeding drivers who zoom past their home.
"We've been conscientious and vocal about speed control in our neighborhood. My husband and I are frequently out there yelling, 'Slow down.' We get FU, bottoms out the window. We've talked to parents. There have been some eggs.
"And there's been one group of young people who have been relentless in the last year," she said, who rev their engines and speed when they go by.
"I have three young children who go out to the mailbox each day," she said.
And she's worried. What if one of the children had opened the mailbox the day the pipe bomb was inside?
"The police found the door handle to our mailbox in our back yard," she said.
"Her concerns are justified," said Los Altos Police Chief Lucy Carlton. "I've got my detectives working on it. We are very concerned."
Sgt. Mark Macaulay said the police have interviewed "a number of people. The post office is being very helpful. We don't have a lot to go on."
According to Carlton, "Fallen Leaf is an area we work as much as we can" with traffic enforcement. "We've responded to a number of complaints on Fallen Leaf. Last May we spent three solid weeks out there and sat on Fallen Leaf. We cited over 20 people," she said. The speed limit is 25 mph.
A neighbor "makes everyone a beautiful little mailbox house," wooden with windows. "That's what blew up," Montalbam said. "Now we have just a regulation box."
If anyone has any information about the pipe bomb, call Postal Inspector B. A. Saluta at (408) 938-4802 or 778-5911. Or call Los Altos Police Detective Mark Laranjo at 948-8223.