We're out in the country, about 1/2 mile from the end of the county road. No neighbors within view of the mailbox.
It used to be a bigger problem when teens and 20 somethings would head to the hills to get drunk and party. We frequently had drunks knocking on the door at 1am when they ran their car off the road on our corner. That was always fun. These days there are a lot of new homes in the area and the forest service gated many of the forest roads. So most of those problems have disappeared.
These days the biggest problem is people dumping their garbage on the sides of the roads. So considerate.
They should have gotten the paper a dollar cheaper since the ads are paying the freight.
My subscription is paid up to the end of the month and, for th first time in my life, no more newspaper. Most of the good columnists have been laid off or given buy-outs.
The topper is when they limited the number of articles I could read on the phone app to ten a month or pay. Bye, I already pay.
About a year ago I tried the online edition ($30/mo) of our local paper. Trouble is they force you to accept javascripts from about a dozen various other websites...so I cancelled. I've since heard the paper is about to go bankrupt.
OK. So, they figure no one is going to *see* their actions. "Empowered" by their confidence that they're not going to get caught.
We're a reasonably close-knit (for "western US" standards) neighborhood so most folks are aware of what to expect from each other.
E.g., if I find a garage door open "at the wrong time", I'll walk up to the front door and remind the homeowner(s) -- on case they've overlooked this.
I joke that you don't want to be cheating on a spouse, operating a meth lab or anything else "out of the ordinary" as there are too many "concerned eyes" around!
[When we moved in, one of the existing neighbors commented that a previous occupant was (probably) having an affair with another occupant behind us -- as they were frequently seen climbing back and forth over the 5 ft fence/wall between the yards!]
Yes, we have that problem with folks dumping "in the desert" (which can often be "in town". E.g., the neighborhoods are stitched with washes (dry creek/stream/river-beds that act to channel surface water out of the neighborhoods). I imagine the city/county own the actual land so it's not really anyone's "private property" -- despite the fact that it adjoins a good fraction of many residences!
This in spite of the fact that you can haul these things to the town dump/landfill "for free". Or, have them picked up at your curbside twice a year!
Yup. My only "postage" costs are to mail parts/prototypes back and forth (USPS or UPS).
Our local paper is little more than a print edition of an AP/Reuters news feed. About the only things they "report on" are various high school ball games. And, it's hard to consider that "reporting".
It's even worse for TV/radio. Research costs money. They'd rather spend that money buying some national "feed" (so, why do I need to go through you to get to that feed?)
Anything of real *interest* ("initiatives" on which we vote pretty regularly -- every 6 mos?) is always "spun" by the editorial staff of the particular media outlet. So, you're never truly getting information but, rather, "selective propaganda". (I'm surely not going to PAY to get your OPINION)
Unless you are predisposed to following a particular national franchise, there are lots of other sites that offer a wide variety of chuckels. These often aren't as artificially constrained in what they can talk about ("PC").
One has to wonder how these folks get these outrageous ideas!! :>
We know our (normal) carriers -- USPS, UPS, FedEx. But, they don't work EVERY day. E.g., the usps has a funky schedule where a "floating mail carrier" (they have a special term for it) covers this route on the "off days" for our regular carrier (and, covers other routes when those other carriers are "off")
A couple of our immediate neighbors are letter carriers. One across the street won *this* route at one point. Mixed blessing:
- Pro: rearranged the route so our mail arrived just in time for lunch (made it convenient to stop at home for lunch instead of "eating out")
- Con: someone you know and see regularly now sees every bit of mail coming to your home (think: metadata; I'm always embarassed to collect mail for folks whose homes I've been asked to watch -- I don't want to know how many bills, financial institutions, etc. they interact with!)
It will be picked up, here (if left in the box -- WITHOUT even having to lift the flag -- which would draw attention to it!). How it is handled AFTER this is not my concern...
Because I was going up that way , I once decided to take the mis-delivered mail directly back to the post office. They really did not give a damn. They told me that if I wanted to talk to a supervisor I'd have to go to another location.
yeah right
That said, considering they deliver billions of pieces of mail, for the most part it does work
Postal clerk #1: "Um, Mr Supervisor? I didn't get my paycheck this week!" Postal Supervisor: "Considering we issue tens of thousands of paychecks. for the most part, it does work!"
I someone wants my mail, they can have it. It's about 5% bills, (which I can access online), and 94% junk mail! The other 1% is stuff like holiday cards (and thats the only stuff I even want to see)....
Occasionally I get my neighbor's mail. If it looks important, I write "Wrong Mailbox, please check address" on the envelope, and raise my flag. If it's just advertising, it goes in the garbage, along with all the junk I get and dont even open.
Years ago, before direct deposit, I had to let one of my friends stay here for a while and when he went on SSN he had the check sent here but in "care of" me...so both our names were on the check.
He did not tell me that, but the check arrived right about the time I was expecting my federal tax return and it was approx the amount I had expected, so barely glancing at it, I deposited it in my savings.
When a few weeks later he asked me if I had seen his first SSN check I told him, "no" and that since me or my wife don't let the mail sit long in the mailbox,I told him someone must have stole it...and it was probably an inside job at the post office.
I think I was more upset than he was and told him that the bastard who stole it is going to get caught and rot in a jail cell!
Then my tax return came...and right about the same time he told me he had the check traced to my account and since it should not have been there, they transferred the funds to him.
I still have not lived that one down.
BTW: My bank screwed up big time as they have a policy of not cashing two party checks unless the other person is present and shows an ID.
Worse still, I deposited in an ATM and the bank absolutely has a policy about not allowing a government check to be deposited or cashed in any way other than in person.
Since I was not prosecuted for fraud, I decided not to complain .
Our county has a local paper that comes out on Wednesdays and Fridays; good for keeping up with local events. Unfortunately, they were bought out by t he local big-city newspaper so we get their unwanted Saturday edition for f ree. I just toss it in the trash. There's also an on-line local news site w hich is very good.
No such person here so occasionally something like a flat screen gets left on the porch. With CCTV - and the rug rats in the neighborhood aware of that - people leave us alone - mostly. I am tempted from time to time to leave an old flat TV box filled with an old piece of 3/4" plywood to see who would come to steal it.
Spit take!
I've had that happen too and it's hard to tell where they went or if they were ever sent. It's disquieting.
I once got a misdirected threat from someone in state prison against my neighbor whom he thought had ratted him out. The next day I said "Chico's been looking for you" and she nearly fell over. Then I handed her the postcard. I guess they don't scan outgoing mail from prisons the way I thought they would.
One of the places at which I volunteer has been burglarized, often. So, there are dozens of cameras feeding a server that archives all footage (motion sensing software).
Often, you will see photos of the crooks staring into the camera!
Provide all of this footage to police -- but it rarely helps. Unless someone recognizes the guys, it's unlikely *it* will turn them up.
Nosey neighbors has a greater sense of immediacy and personal involvement. E.g., I once noticed neighbor behind us sliding screen door off its tracks. They are often out of town so feared someone had accessed the house while away.
Phoned police ("No, it's not an emergency") and took to watching the house more actively. Some time later, saw the wife at the back door (she had apparently been in the shower when I telephoned PRIOR to phoning the police and, thus, hadn't answered).
"You'll be expecting a visit from a uniformed officer RSN..." "Really? Why?" (explained screen door looking as if it had been ripped off its track) "Oh, he (husband) did that last night. And, you he isn't very HANDY..."
I assume they *were* sent (hard to imagine their machine opted NOT to send ours but sent everyone else's). And, phoning the institution just gets a "OK, we'll send out another copy" sort of reply.
So, where did they get lost? Are they stuck in a mailbag someplace? In a sorting facility? On a neighbor's kitchen table?
And, I suspect most folks just open the first class mail without doublechecking the name of the addressee. Having opened it, are they likely to stuff it back in its envelope and try to deliver it to us? Or, just opt for the less embarassing option and discard it??
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