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Glitter bomb tricks parcel thieves

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Re: Glitter bomb tricks parcel thieves

#611

Post by loser777 »

WillPostForFood wrote: post #600

Does this video seem fake/staged to anyone else? Particularly the reaction of the thief, but also that they left the phones behind, the unlikely GPS signal in the garage, he fearless approach to the crime scene. Nothing felt right.

It's definitely a possibility but:

+ I think it's hard to guess what the reaction of a thief will be

+ The only indication that there were phones inside appeared to be the tiny holes for the cameras

+ It appears he had a trace of GPS signals over time so that he would be able to deduce it ended up in garage if it stopped transmitting there

I would say the "fearless approach to the crime scene" is probably the most suspect bit.

Re: Glitter bomb tricks parcel thieves

#612

Post by nwsm »

rdtsc wrote: post #590
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 completely understand. My car has been broken into multiple times. Thieves stole my wife's credit card and went on a shopping spree. The store had footage but the police refused to do anything. It could be worse course, but it's very disappointing when this happens. Not sure what your options are - move to a relatively wealthy suburb probably with a well funded police department where they might not be lazy enough…

Why do police refuse to look into it? More important cases? Not as easy to find them guilty as it seems?

Re: Glitter bomb tricks parcel thieves

#613

Post by DanBC »

woolvalley wrote: post #597
ragebol wrote: post #61

In the Netherlands, when I order a package and no one's at home when it's delivered, it either gets delivered to my neighbors or to the post office, with a note of where to pick it up. It's never left at my door AFAIK. How is this not an option in the US?

Since the USA is a car culture, you can safely ship to work and put the packages in your car trunk after you commute. You can ship to home the low value packages and if theft isn't common enough for you and amazon will just reship you on the rare case that it gets stolen. This breaks down if you don't do car commutes although, in urban places like NYC & SF or can't ship to work.

I used to work in goods in and I would have done everything in my power to get that stopped.

It was a shitty minimum wage job and my responsibilities definitely didn't stretch to doing unpaid work for multiple people on top of my shitty job.

EDIT: Maybe this is just a lack of understanding of what happens in goods-in? Or working some place where your deliveries don't add much burden?

Re: Glitter bomb tricks parcel thieves

#614

Post by pavon »

jessriedel wrote: post #118
ragebol wrote: post #61

In the Netherlands, when I order a package and no one's at home when it's delivered, it either gets delivered to my neighbors or to the post office, with a note of where to pick it up. It's never left at my door AFAIK. How is this not an option in the US?

Requiring the package to be signed for is an option; most people don't want it because going to the post office to pick up your package is a huge pain, and thefts are pretty rare.

I've had bad experiences with packages that require signatures. UPS drivers consistently leave the package on the porch without a signature even if one is required. DHL tries to deliver 3 times then returns the package to sender, ignoring the online form you can submit to request they deliver on a specific day or hold at warehouse. Haven't tried Fedex. USPS is pretty good about about getting signatures or holding at the post office, and have more convenient locations compared to the private services.

Re: Glitter bomb tricks parcel thieves

#615

Post by nitwit005 »

iamdave wrote: post #533
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…

there needs to be a platform to post these videos for the public to crowdsource the identity of these people. And then what? Will the platform also have a portal that will let people en masse vex the local PD with messages containing links to the video until the precinct assigns an officer to the case? What happens next? Is there going to be a timer or some kind of SLA on the platform that notifies people in the crow…

The police officially crowd source investigations all the time. That's what a wanted poster is.

We've been doing that for hundreds of years, so if there is a rabbit hole, we're at the bottom of it.

Re: Glitter bomb tricks parcel thieves

#616

Post by rconti »

the8472 wrote: post #503
rconti wrote: post #454

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody's home during the day. What neighbor? How do you know which neighbor will be home, or which neighbor to trust? When 90% of your package recipients are not home, you spend 3x as much time per package delivery. Carriers offload responsibility by allowing the sender or receiver to opt-out of signature/package acceptance, so why would they care? Just one data point, but I've been having packages delivered to my ho…

You can specify a neighbor in an online form. A commercial entity on the ground floor may be generous enough act as "neighbor", accept the packages in bulk and put them in the stairwell of the building. If neither of that works you still have pickup points in shops or dedicated lockboxes[0] in central locations. [0] https://i.imgur.com/F0sDNJO.jpg

Huh, I haven't heard of shipping companies that allow you to designate a neighbor. That's cool.

I've not shipped to myself using an Amazon locker since I've never had an issue with package theft, but if a package is worth more than $500 or $1000 I'll often have it sent to my office, which I suspect is what most people do if possible.

Re: Glitter bomb tricks parcel thieves

#617

Post by khazhou »

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…

Hopefully you don't keep your wallet and keys in your car anymore! If thieves broke into my car, they'd get some old CDs, leather gloves, and a skateboard I have no emotional attachment to.

Seriously people: your car is not secure storage.

Re: Glitter bomb tricks parcel thieves

#618

Post by mdpopescu »

will_brown wrote: post #607
iamdave wrote: post #533

Earlier quoted context omitted.

there needs to be a platform to post these videos for the public to crowdsource the identity of these people. And then what? Will the platform also have a portal that will let people en masse vex the local PD with messages containing links to the video until the precinct assigns an officer to the case? What happens next? Is there going to be a timer or some kind of SLA on the platform that notifies people in the crow…

>What happens next? Well let me tell you of another event that occurred to me in 08/17. I was kidnapped at gunpoint from a gas station, forced to drive my attacker with a gun on my for 30 minutes, eventually after getting off the highway I jumped out of my own car in gear, escaped and called the police. First words out of the sergeants mouth responding, “cut the shit what really happened.” Despite my insistence I’m a…

Ok, so you already realized that the police aren't useless - they are far worse than that. When are you going to take responsibility for solving your problems?

Re: Glitter bomb tricks parcel thieves

#619

Post by mdpopescu »

zanny wrote: post #540
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…

The worst part is there is really nothing a normal person can do in a situation like this. You would end up paying substantially more to hire a lawyer to hound the police or pursue the investigation independently, and even if you brought the thieves to justice you would never recoup your costs. I'm not smart enough to come up with solutions but there has to be something better than police unaccountable to anyone with…

This is called "learned helplessness". It's the result of decades of state education teaching you that your only recourse is the nanny state. Funny how that works out.

Re: Glitter bomb tricks parcel thieves

#620

Post by vec »

blueboo wrote: post #539
iamdave wrote: post #533

Earlier quoted context omitted.

there needs to be a platform to post these videos for the public to crowdsource the identity of these people. And then what? Will the platform also have a portal that will let people en masse vex the local PD with messages containing links to the video until the precinct assigns an officer to the case? What happens next? Is there going to be a timer or some kind of SLA on the platform that notifies people in the crow…

If we as a society are OK with qualified law enforcement looking the other way, then we're OK with passing the buck to the unqualified. Yes, it's a "rabbit hole [we're] not sure we're prepared to go down". We're not prepared. We're going down it

> If we as a society are OK with qualified law enforcement looking the other way, then we're OK with passing the buck to the unqualified.

You're excluding the admittedly somewhat bleak but still quite plausible third alternative: we as a society are in practice OK with this class of crime going largely unprosecuted.

The legitimate authorities are resource constrained, the political process isn't prepared to allocate sufficient resources to change that, and the societal costs of allowing vigilanteism and extrajudicial punishment are broadly believed to outstrip the scope of the problem they would ostensibly be solving. This leads to an equilibrium where a lot of petty theft goes unpunished and we, as a society, are in practice content to accept it that way.

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