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Porch pirates aka package thieves

I saw this mentioned in a thread about a doorbell and I had no idea this is actually a thing. But it turns out it is.
There are people who steal your packages. 90 000 packages in New York city are stolen every day. That's mind boggling.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/02/nyregion/online-shopping-package-theft.html

Package horror stories have become so common that some state lawmakers are taking aim at thieves. In Texas, package thieves could face up to 10 years in prison under a new law. A South Carolina bill, called the Defense Against Porch Pirates Act, would make package theft a felony.

What's your take on porch pirates?
 
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As people said in that thread, cops will not do shit a lot of the time even if you have video.

So you might have to enforce your own creative justice, like with booby-trapped boxes with glitter bombs, a snake, or maybe a tracking device.
 

brap

Banned
The fuck is up with you people?

Drop it off with a neighbour, buy a fucking letterbox or have it dropped off at a post-office.

Who the fuck is leaving packages on their doorstep all day?:messenger_tears_of_joy:
The fuck is up with YOU? Who leaves their packages with a fucking neighbor? Is this the 1950s?
 

Grinchy

Banned
The fuck is up with you people?

Drop it off with a neighbour, buy a fucking letterbox or have it dropped off at a post-office.

Who the fuck is leaving packages on their doorstep all day?:messenger_tears_of_joy:
I can do it without ever having mine stolen. Maybe it's just that I don't live around a bunch of pieces of shit. Maybe it's the demographics. Who knows?
 

rofif

Can’t Git Gud
The neighbors are most likely the ones stealing shit.
Here, package would NEVER be left at the doorstep. it would be taken back to nearest parcel or post office. Or dropped to neighboor with an message to me "the package was left in apartment 12, signed by xxx".
How can a delivery company just put it down ?! I might want to inspect it, sign something, do anything. Not just leave it out in the open wtf is wrong with usa.

Maybe it depends on neighbors. Mine don't seem to steal my packages. And I don't steal theirs :p
 
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Mistake

Member
What states have the best laws when it comes to protecting your property? Glitterbombs won't do anything, they'd probably vandalize your house after
 

highrider

Banned
The fuck is up with you people?

Drop it off with a neighbour, buy a fucking letterbox or have it dropped off at a post-office.

Who the fuck is leaving packages on their doorstep all day?:messenger_tears_of_joy:

Guess Amazon isn’t popping where you’re at, but on a given day you could see a dozen packages on doorsteps in my very middle of the road neighborhood.
 
I can do it without ever having mine stolen. Maybe it's just that I don't live around a bunch of pieces of shit. Maybe it's the demographics. Who knows?

Same. Never had or heard of packages being nicked.

Guess Amazon isn’t popping where you’re at, but on a given day you could see a dozen packages on doorsteps in my very middle of the road neighborhood.

99% of the shit I buy is from Amazon, though it does sound like an invitation to tramps if you have loads of valuable stuff just knocking about.
 

Grinchy

Banned
I don't know the law enough, but I wonder what would happen if you had a big "cat door" on your garage. Amazon and any package delivery service could just scoot the package through that. And if someone were to go inside your house through that door to steal your package, would that constitute a bigger crime than swiping it from your porch? And would that be enough for a cop to finally fucking do something about it?
 

lock2k

Banned
Thank god i live in a building and we have employees inside to receive packages.

Leaving packages outside is asking for them to be robbed. lol
 
What states have the best laws when it comes to protecting your property? Glitterbombs won't do anything, they'd probably vandalize your house after

I mean, what are they going to do? If they want to sue you, you can just threaten them with trespassing and theft charges if they try. It's all on video, and a jury is not going to be favorable to them regardless of the law. People hate thieves.

You can also buy skunk spray in bottles - imagine having that get ejected as a mist in their home or car 😆
 
I wonder how many porch pirates are in California...

More states should adopt a "shoot trespassers on site" law.

Unfortunately, trespasser laws have been built to protect very liminal, often absurd situations.

E.g. "B-b-b-but what if a blind person wanders onto your property and trips on a tree root! You should have cut that tree down to prevent it!"
 
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jts

...hate me...
It's crazy to me that with this amount of package stealing, the whole country doesn't change the delivery system almost overnight.

Nowhere I have lived packages were supposed to be dropped at the door by default. You can either sign for them or pick them from somewhere else. Sometimes you're allowed to pre-sign online or authorize dropping at the door in some other way. But rarely people do it.

I guess american people want their convenience, and this is the price to pay.

At this point houses should start being built with little package drop-off closets. Like oversized mailboxes.
 

EverydayBeast

thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
They can come up with all sorts of ways to prevent package stealing but guess what, they're still exposed, I respect that they're trying to create ways to prevent package stealing though.
 
It's amazing, my wife orders so much shit online we always have boxes in front of the house. Never had anything go missing either (knock on wood). I usually get things delivered to the office just in case though.
 

Silent Duck

Member
The fuck is up with you people?

Drop it off with a neighbour, buy a fucking letterbox or have it dropped off at a post-office.

Who the fuck is leaving packages on their doorstep all day?:messenger_tears_of_joy:
My neighbors are either barely able to get around, or associated with the drug dealer across the street. Hell, some at the post office are regulars for the local drug dealer. So, no. And I had packages misdelivered and the USPS just goes “Oops... sorry, not insured? Fuck off.” or “Oops... you had it insured? Not our responsibility. Fuck off.”

When I’m expecting a delivery. I keep constant tabs on the tracking all fucking day. When Amazon gets to a few stops away, I call my sister to intercept it for me. Any other deliveries, I get text updates for. Lather, Rinse, and repeat. When possible, I try to use Amazon delivery day (a day I will be home). Otherwise, it’s a roll of the dice.

Awaiting packages can be fairly annoying.

Oh by the way...
 
Self deleted post, editing with new one.

Edit- In hindsight even being overwhelmingly snarky when making a joke about a thermite booby trap still probably shouldn't have the exact recipe for making thermite in it.

So I'll leave it at this, thieves aren't worth the air they breath.
 
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S

SLoWMoTIoN

Unconfirmed Member
How is this still a problem in current year?

Get that doorbell camera thing every other house has. Report em to cops.
Get cameras for your house. Report em to the cops.
 

Grinchy

Banned
My neighbors for some reason were gone days at a time and I once almost brought a package of theirs in to keep it safe. That was on day 3 of it sitting on the porch. I decided not to and they got it on the 4th day.
 

Gargus

Banned
Don't hear about it around here where I live too much really. I've never had something go missing.

My biggest problem is the lazy ass stepson will walk by a box on the porch when he gets home from school and not even bring it inside.

The neighbors are most likely the ones stealing shit.

Not to mention I don't want to be responsible for making sure I get my neighbors shit, then holding onto it and making sure they get it. Last thing I want is to do chores for my neighbors.
 

Mistake

Member
I don’t know why any of you guys are suggesting cameras. Cops don’t give a damn. What I meant before about property laws in my earlier post, is what if you ordered a snake or something, they open it and try to sue for injuries. Or if you outright caught them running off with your package (or other kinds of property)? I’m wondering what states have the best property laws. I think I remember florida being the most extreme
 
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foxGlove

Neo Member
never get my parcels stolen, the courier usually called/message me when nobody's home and asked where can they put my parcel. they take a picture afterwards too, confirming the location of the parcel.

there's one occasion when I wasn't home, the courier called me where I am and then delivered it to me even though my campus was like miles away (I was still in class at that time and he didn't want to leave the parcel on my porch)
 
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