Porch Pirates

I was exchanging texts with a woman from Omaha, NE when she brought them up. I'd never heard the term before. People grab delivered packages during broad daylight without fear. I guess virtually everyone has some sort of camera on their houses. She has apps on her phone that let her talk/text with homeowners as she walks by on her daily walks. They can share stories of thefts. I live near a town of under 10,000. Theft isn't an issue. I had a pickup full of tools sitting out front during my working years. Never had anything taken. Toolboxes weren't locked. Apparently, steal and sell is an industry in parts of the U.S. Craigslist?

Reply to
Dean Hoffman
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Yes, it is especially if you use Fedex! I once sold an expensive tube amp to some nice sounding guy who lived in the styx. Fedex took a while delivering it and when they did, he was in hospital. They left it on his porch (surely that can't be right??) and someone stole it!

Reply to
Amanda Ripanykhazova

AIUI, sometimes they follow the Amazon truck around!

Not me. And I'm not getting one. I took a walk yesterday, and I didn't count or even look how mmany had cameras, but the one house that was the most run-down of all the houses, counting the yard, had two and a solar flood light. White on a brown house, so very noticeable. Just looking at it, it was the last place I would rob even if it had no camera.

Glad to hear it.

Could be.

Reply to
micky

You might like this guy:

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Reply to
Cindy Hamilton

Good, old fashioned, American ingenuity.

Reply to
Dean Hoffman

Unless a signature is required, they all do that, FedEx, UPS. USPS. Amazon. If you have the right garage door opener, Amazon will leave the package in the garage.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

When I first got here in 1983 they used to leave packages. Later, maybe there were some thefts in the area, and they started leaving redelivery slips -- I was always at work. Then I had everything shipped to a friend who ran a ministorage, always someone there 9-5. When she quit, I started to put right in my shipping address, Micky Mantle NO signature requird.

That worked really well, and one time a delivery man thanked me for it.

Later, when there were still lots of school kids** walking in front of the house, I added in the first address line Please hide to right. Sometimes the webpage didn't like that because it didn't look like a street address. In fact they have a list of all the streets. But even then, except once, the computer would ask if it was right and give me a chance to say Yes.

**Most of those kids would never steal anything, but there were up to 20 a day, from grades 7 to 12, and it only takes one. Later a tree fell down at the edge of the stream and it was too hard for them to take that route. After 3 years, no one is left who ever took that route, so no kid even remembers it.

But I had trouble just a couple months ago. I bought something from HomeDepot that was not in the store, had to be delivered. Got an email from UPS that the address was no good and on the UPS webpage, all it had was Please Hide to Right. The line with the street name and number was not there!!!

Went to Home Depot's page and in one part of it were both lines, but somehow it was clear that they had sent only one of the address lines to UPS!!! Why do they have two lines if they're not going to relay both?

This should be an easy fix for them but there was no way to email them iirc, tried some other way to tell them, got no answer, but it's rare I have anything from HD deliveed, since the store is nearby. Next time I'll check the UPS page right away, to correct it.

I think they all used to ring the doorbell, right? They must have because otherwise, when they were leaving pink redlivery slips, they'd never have been able to deliver anything

Now does anyone ring the doorbell anymore??

Reply to
micky

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