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Glitter bomb tricks parcel thieves

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391–400 of 940 posts

Re: Glitter bomb tricks parcel thieves

#391
post #357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bear in mind... these people know where you live.

Hard to believe how many people are concerned by that. So a cowardly thief gets glitter bombed and you are worried that they will come back!! Imagine how much worse it would get for them.

I don't think someone being a thief makes them cowardly, and thus not open to coming back and throwing a brick through your window in retaliation.

A thief is already open to the idea of invading your personal space for gain, why not revenge?

Re: Glitter bomb tricks parcel thieves

#392
I'm not sure what this proves other than being a honey trap and good YouTube clickbait.

This has been done on YouTube before with people setting up unlocked bicycles attached to some strong difficult to see rope bolted to a nearby structure (e.g. fishing wire), waiting for someone to come and take it, and then laugh when the thief goes flying over the handlebars as they ride off

It's justice porn, but at the same time it makes me feel uncomfortable watching.

Re: Glitter bomb tricks parcel thieves

#393
post #228
post #173

This needs careful consideration if you ever decide to do it. Depending on the local criminal culture they could exact revenge. Then also know where you live and can do a lot worse things than taking a package. Police might later be involved but it might not be worth it. You are dealing with people who have no qualms stealing so it's not too crazy to expect other rash and illegal acts from them. I can also see some i…

I learned from Nextdoor, that a neighbor of mine put cat litter in an amazon box, and later found out her car's driver side window busted in and the litter dumped on the seat. I now just have packages sent to lockers and UPS/FedEX access points, and I know a few who have packages delivered to their office. The crappy part is that she captured clear detail of both events but police couldn't be bothered. Nest and Ring…

Have your neighbor contact her State Representative or State Senator. Police know their budgets will get screwed if they piss off these people.

Twice I have emailed the police and CC the Mayor of my city. I got a sorry can we meet in person response in an hour. The Sargent on Call was eating humble pie when he was called in and got chewed out by the Mayor and the Police. (Story a neighbor I don't know was physically assaulted by his girlfriend and she ripped his shirt and scratched him up. I stopped him from destroying her and going to jail. I called the police and no one came. We walked over to the station with 3 police cars sitting outside and were turned away.)

Re: Glitter bomb tricks parcel thieves

#394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

@jdb here on HN had, at one time, installed a very conspicuous camera housing on his house although it had no camera in it. Psychological deterrence.

It would be fun to have it do motion tracking (could use directional audio to track). It always freaks people out when a camera like device is following their movement.

Wyze cam Pan will do this for 30 bucks if you're looking for a product and not a tinkering project.

Re: Glitter bomb tricks parcel thieves

#395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Better yet, we could wall in the criminals and declare the inside of their "cells" to be the outside, thus walling them out.

Nah, to do that you need to curtail people’s freedom. What I’m proposing is simply that we privatize large parts of society and exclude people from the private areas based on their tendency to be bad actors. It’s not about restricting freedom. It’s about enabling free safe association for everyone who opts in. Like a massive HOA.

Expect this to be immediately co-opted by political camps to exacerbate and codify divisions that exist today.

Re: Glitter bomb tricks parcel thieves

#396
post #256

If you're concerned about package thieves, just buy an outdoor cabinet and put it next to your door with a note asking that packages be placed in it. I use an Ikea Josef: https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/products/storage-furniture/outdoo... You don't even need a lock for it. If you can get the deliverymen to consistently place packages in it, the thieves will have no idea if there's actually a package at your door to steal…

Yeah, we had a package stolen off our porch, so we did that. It's a bench with a liftable top. The plan was to put a padlock on it. All of our packages are addressed to: Shaftway Place in Bench - Code 1234 24601 Where I Live St. My City, ST, ZipZipZip We order a lot of stuff, and probably average 3 deliveries per day. In the last 3 months we've had exactly one package placed in the bench. And we never even got around…

We have a foot high fence in front of our door.

That plus a grassy slope is enough to hide the packages from street view.

Our neighbor across the street gets their packages stolen often. I have never had any package stolen, and I order 100x times as many packages.

Re: Glitter bomb tricks parcel thieves

#397

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One fun psychological hack for this - paint an eye above or on said locker. This is backed by research. For example: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-tyne-22270052

@jdb here on HN had, at one time, installed a very conspicuous camera housing on his house although it had no camera in it. Psychological deterrence.

Actually, it had a camera. It was an ordinary webcam but it was mounted in a very conspicuous, conventional security camera housing.

Re: Glitter bomb tricks parcel thieves

#398
post #256

If you're concerned about package thieves, just buy an outdoor cabinet and put it next to your door with a note asking that packages be placed in it. I use an Ikea Josef: https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/products/storage-furniture/outdoo... You don't even need a lock for it. If you can get the deliverymen to consistently place packages in it, the thieves will have no idea if there's actually a package at your door to steal…

One fun psychological hack for this - paint an eye above or on said locker. This is backed by research. For example: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-tyne-22270052

Full text of the article cited on the author's website:

https://www.danielnettle.org.uk/download/131.pdf

Re: Glitter bomb tricks parcel thieves

#399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stealing (physically at least) is a stupid way to make money. A $200 game console will hardly net a thief $50. There are a lot of issues in my city with the less fortunate stealing items to make some small money - bikes are a common target. It neither really helps the thief, and it's very unfortunate for the person stolen from.

In California, thefts of under $950 are not felony crimes. And there's no more "three strikes". So you can steal packages for a living and, at worst, have to spend a week or two in jail over the course of a year. Not a bad living.

I'm actually surprised the youtube-guy doesn't go back to the police at this point, because what they have stolen is a prototype-product, which is worth whatever the inventor says it is worth; Anyone taking this package is committing a felony at this point - which might be worth these lazy-ass cops' time.

Re: Glitter bomb tricks parcel thieves

#400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the video we see many people stealing from porches with video cameras, and the author mentions that the police didn't take action even with video evidence. While I think your suggestion would reduce the chance of theft, I think you overestimate the accuracy of the risk-benefit analysis happening in the thieves' minds, as well as the actual risk involved. I mean, the activity is already dumb from a risk analysis po…

I don't think the video evidence is meant to help the police (or, obviously, to deter the thieves), but it's useful for requesting a replacement from the shipper.

I don't think the shippers are responsible for any theft that's not caused by their staff.
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