Content area
Full Text
In an age when high-tech computers and medical inventions are all the rage among entrepreneurs, Indianapolis native Jim Thompson is sinking his money into mailboxes.
It's an idea that had bankers and venture capitalists all over town either yawning or laughing, depending on their temperaments, when Thompson approached them a few years ago. But that doesn't matter to him now, because a pretty reputable firm by the name of General Electric thinks that the mailbox idea is a good one.
Thompson's mailboxes -- the roadside variety that attach to a post -- are made from GE's Lexan plastic, the same material used in NASA's astronaut helmets and in the windows of military fighter planes. A half-inch thickness of the plastic can stop a speeding bullet. The one-eighth-inch thickness that Thompson uses in his mailboxes is more than enough to withstand abuse from vandals, baseball bats or neighbors who accidentally throw their cars into reverse.
Since February, Thompson and three part-time helpers have assembled and sold about 100 of the mailboxes out of a mostly abandoned warehouse on the city's near east side. Each mailbox features a small version of the armadillo, the insignia chosen to represent...