Royal Mail: 'Please stop meddling with our postboxes'

Team GB hockey star Georgie Twigg with the repainted postbox in Doddington, which had been bronze, right

A wave of vigilante postbox painting is sweeping the nation, it seems. After Royal Mail promised to paint a postbox gold in the home town of all Great Britain's Olympic gold-medal winners, overlooked locals have taken matters into their own hands.

A postbox in Doddington, near Lincoln, the home of Team GB's bronze-medal-winning hockey player Georgie Twigg, was painted bronze, only for Royal Mail to paint it red again. A bronze box has appeared in Lowestoft, the home of bronze-winning boxer Anthony Ogogo.

In Lymington, Hampshire, the home of gold-medal-winning sailor Ben Ainslie, local business owner Rob Smith spent a night in the cells after painting a postbox gold. Royal Mail called his actions "vandalism", but Ainslie called him "a legend".