The Hopkinton Police Department alerted the public about “a slew of mailbox vandalisms across town” in a Facebook post early Saturday afternoon.

In a follow-up email to the Independent later Saturday, HPD Detective Sgt. Gregg DeBoer explained that there were “three or four incidents” of mailbox vandalism recently at “various residential locations in town.”

“The victims do not appear to be specifically targeted, and there is no reason to believe it is tied to anything,” stated DeBoer. “The events all seem to happen in the late night/early morning time frame.”

Items from these incidents have been sent to the state crime lab for analysis to determine if there is any forensic evidence, he added.

“We posted this on social media for several reasons,” continued DeBoer. “Most notably is that in all of the events, people in the area recall hearing the damage being done, but it is not reported at the time.”

He stressed that the HPD should be called in a timely manner following suspicious activity, even if appears to be minor in nature to the person involved.

“Calling the HPD can get officers responding to the area in a more contemporaneous time frame to the crime, which could aid us in identifying vehicles or people in the area,” he noted. “Secondly, many people may not report that they were victimized because to them, it may not seem worthy of notifying the police. We are trying to determine if this is more widespread than we are aware of.

“Finally, we hope that it encourages people to talk about it with their neighbors and children to see if they may have heard something about it happening,” he explained.

If people have any information about these incidents, DeBoer urged them to email him at gdeboer@hopkintonpd.org or call 508-497-3401.

“If they are hesitant to report it, they can submit an anonymous email to crimetips@hopkintonpd.org,” he added.