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Glitter bomb tricks parcel thieves

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Re: Glitter bomb tricks parcel thieves

#551

Post by swebs »

iamdave wrote: post #433
rootusrootus wrote: post #426

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ha, that's probably true. Though the last time I was walking down the street when a city cop rolled past, he waved. I waved. I have lived some places where the police culture was more toxic, definitely.

It's definitely a YMMV kind of thing. I'm not going to go on some kind of "all cops are bastards" bend here, cause that's not the case and this isn't the forum for it, but I've had more bad experiences with the police than good ones. None of them resulted in an arrest or charges filed (this is excluding moving violations because death, taxes and speeding tickets; I was a 23 year old driving a Mustang lol) since none…

Conversely, I grew up in a pretty rough area of Philadelphia and had nothing but good experiences with police. They're usually pretty cool and active in the community. If you're not selling crack or in the middle of stabbing some guy, you're already better than 99% of the people they have to deal with on a daily basis.

Re: Glitter bomb tricks parcel thieves

#552

Post by pvaldes »

rdtsc wrote: 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…

> Then also know where you live

And you know were they live also. One side has much more to lose than the other. The guy can exert devastating social damage in the life of the thieves just showing the videos in their street, to their landlord, or filtering it to a friend in the same school, not to mention uploading them to internet. Their faces are clearly seen on film stealing. Their address is known. In some cases even their cars are known also.

The logical step for a smart thief would be to move to easier targets and avoid bothering a guy able to spend six entire months building a very complicated plot to seek exact revenge.

Re: Glitter bomb tricks parcel thieves

#553

Post by sjg007 »

topspin wrote: post #470
shaftway wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

They get it all the way to the porch? I've had USPS people leave packages in the driveway because walking the 25' feet from the vehicle to the porch is too much to expect.

Yeah this is really annoying.

Re: Glitter bomb tricks parcel thieves

#554

Post by bunderbunder »

stingraycharles wrote: post #224
Rainymood wrote: post #16

I'm honestly really shocked by how casually people seem to steal these parcels, like what the hell?

As a European, I'm surprised that the postal services in the US just leave the packages outside, rather than ringing the doorbell and/or delivering it to a neighbor. Over here in The Netherlands, pickup points are common (my local groceries store is one), you can choose your delivery time (also in the evening) and they will deliver it to a neighbor when I'm not home. Why not avoid this whole problem with any of these…

My experience has been that it depends heavily on who's doing the delivery.

US Postal Service staff usually do ring the doorbell when leaving packages, and, if nobody answers, they will make an effort to leave it in a concealed location if that's possible.

UPS and FedEx people in our area typically leave it by the door without ringing the doorbell, but usually do still try to conceal the package.

Amazon delivery people typically leave it out in the yard, next to the sidewalk.

I'm guessing the difference has a lot to do with the deliveries-to-time ratio that each company's drivers get.

Re: Glitter bomb tricks parcel thieves

#555

Post by jakelarkin »

will_brown wrote: post #512

I just told this story on HN, but my car window was smashed on 10/13/18 and the theives got my wallet and house keys. They used my credit card at foot locker (~$500), The Store Manager confirmed two guys made the purchase and corporate said they would turn over the video if police just ask. A month later the bank fraud dept informed me someone was trying to cash a fake check ($1,600) against my account at an ATM usin…

it's a non-violent crime of opportunity. police time is $150/hour at least. all your loses seem to be covered by the banks, aside from the car window, which um happens to people all the time. its the kind of thing they pursue occasionally in realtime or with a sting, but not each individual case.

change your key, open a new checking account & close old, lock your credit. and that ends your exposure.

you won't get the video footage because it creates a legal liability for the owners to release it.

EDIT I'm all for broken windows but thats still implemented as a sampling approach. They don't actually pursue every low-level crime.

Re: Glitter bomb tricks parcel thieves

#556

Post by alkonaut »

darkarmani wrote: post #519
alkonaut wrote: post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Filming the way these cameras show which include part of the street would probably be considered not-ok in many jurisdictions.

Not inside the US. There is no expectation of privacy when you are in public .

Not here either - I can take a photo of anyone in the street. However, I can’t mount a fixed surveillance camera on my house and do the same (for some reason).

Re: Glitter bomb tricks parcel thieves

#557

Post by dalore »

will_brown wrote: post #512

I just told this story on HN, but my car window was smashed on 10/13/18 and the theives got my wallet and house keys. They used my credit card at foot locker (~$500), The Store Manager confirmed two guys made the purchase and corporate said they would turn over the video if police just ask. A month later the bank fraud dept informed me someone was trying to cash a fake check ($1,600) against my account at an ATM usin…

I guess wouldn't you file suit against the police as they are now responsible?

Re: Glitter bomb tricks parcel thieves

#558

Post by swebs »

mmcwilliams wrote: post #303
entity345 wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where is it a felony to have a CCTV?

In California, New York and Rhode Island it's illegal to place a hidden video camera in a place where people have a reasonable expectation of privacy. These would be considered hidden video cameras. Not sure the severity of the charges in those states, but in other jurisdictions recording audio of conversations without all-party consent violates wiretapping laws and is a felony.

>where people have a reasonable expectation of privacy

Which pretty clearly doesn't apply to out in the open in the middle of a public street.

Re: Glitter bomb tricks parcel thieves

#559

Post by pixl97 »

dkonofalski wrote: post #360
EForEndeavour wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disturbingly, the accidental message of this glitterbomb booby-trap video is that you will probably not face legal consequences for stealing packages from peoples' property in broad daylight, so even the best security cameras are effectively useless.

That was my takeaway from this. It just gives the package thieves more reason to do it because, even if they do get caught on video, there's nothing that's going to be done about it.

Until they finally do it in Texas or Florida, and get shot to death.

Re: Glitter bomb tricks parcel thieves

#560

Post by giarc »

will_brown wrote: post #512

I just told this story on HN, but my car window was smashed on 10/13/18 and the theives got my wallet and house keys. They used my credit card at foot locker (~$500), The Store Manager confirmed two guys made the purchase and corporate said they would turn over the video if police just ask. A month later the bank fraud dept informed me someone was trying to cash a fake check ($1,600) against my account at an ATM usin…

Somewhat related but Ring has a Neighbors app where you can share video with other users in your area (or request video from certain times). The site is not working for some reason (https://ring.com/neighbors) but it stirred a bit of controversy when launched.

This sort of gets at your idea of a platform to identify people.

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