Dealing with Package Theft and Security

From It's a Wonderful Life:

"I'll tell you what I'm going to do for you, George. As a stockholder in the Building and Loan, I'm going to swear out a warrant for your arrest! Misappropriation of funds...manipulation...malfeasance..."



How appropriate to the Christmas season!
 
Leaving a couple of hungry, drooling pit bulls chained to the porch (securely...as we don't want innocents being mauled) might also be a slight deterrent. :D

Think the delivery guy is going to go anywhere near that to put the package on the porch? :yikes: This may not work out the way you have it planned...
 
I said 'perp' to a cop once. It was after a drunk driver slammed into my utility trailer and truck legally parked at the curb in front of my house. I had to chase the guy down while calling 911 with the other hand. Guy's car finally failed, cops came and arrested him. I went back to the house and there was a lady cop talking to my wife. Got out of the car hitching up my pants and sniffing like Barney Fife. "Yessir, I pursued the perp until backup arrived." I could literally hear her interior struggle not to roll her eyes. It was pretty funny. You know, except for having my truck totaled.
 
I'm down with 'perp' and have used it occasionally in the past myself but I can't wait to throw in a couple of 'malefactors' this season with the in-laws:biggrin:
 
Just put one of these in the box, one that starts beeping as soon as the box is moved.

With a message "next time this will be real"

fake timer bomb.JPG

(fake bomb alarm clock countdown timer)
 
We've already had the SWAT team on our street, about five years ago... o_O
 
As a member of the legal community, I have to speak. I know folks tend to speak tongue in cheek, and get a laugh, but some might get the idea to actually do things like this.

Whether or not the one that is on the receiving end of such primed devices is perpetrating a crime at the time, anyone involved in setting up a primed device like this is liable for possible criminal charges if it goes off and causes any real damages. Such devices do not discriminate when they go off, and frequently, unintended consequences and damage results. In addition to criminal penalties, civil penalties, where the level of proof and elements of claims are reduced, can add up to 6 figures and beyond quite easily.

Example: a potential thief steps up and grabs the booby trapped container, and it goes off. The thief is startled and jerks backward, losing his balance, falls off of the porch and hits his head on the sidewalk. He suffers severe brain damage, and is wheelchair bound for the next 35 years of his life. The jury awards the thief with the $260K of special damages (hospital, rehab, remodeling his house for the wheelchair, and a vehicle to accommodate the wheelchair). In addition, the jury awards $2.5M to compensate for his loss of income according to related actuarial tables, his inability to have marital relations with his wife, his inability to relate physically with his two children, his inability to maintain his home and vehicles on his own, court costs he incurred in bringing the law suit, etc., etc., etc.

For folks with access to legal research tools, informative cases will be found, relating to what are called "spring guns." Here is a good place to start: https://h2o.law.harvard.edu/collages/2773

Think twice people,
Rich P

Legally you are most likely right. Actually the the thief would most likely been on welfare, collecting food stamps, living in subsidized housing, and fathering kids that would be on wic, and free school lunches with a mother that has her own food stamps, welfare, and subsidized housing. So in essence, the award would take the burden off the taxpayers and put it onto the individual that was trying to protect his property. And people wonder why there has become such a political divide in this country.
 
I will try to avoid stepping in that hole by just saying: Justice is blind, and there are very legitimate reasons for that, regardless of the fact that the end result is not always what we might want or think is 'right'.
 
Realistically, by consumers adopting online purchasing and home delivery en-mass, they have shifted the issue of shrinkage or shop lifting from the bricks and mortar retailers to their own bricks and mortar on the front porch. Kind of ironic if you ask me.

Retailers have long considered shrinkage as a cost of doing business- now it's the consumer's turn to do the same. :)
 
Can't see the word "shrinkage" without thinking of George Costanza from Seinfeld ... <G>

Package thieves are truly among the scum of the earth ... right up there with collections agents and telemarketers!
 
Retailers have long considered shrinkage as a cost of doing business- now it's the consumer's turn to do the same. :)

Perhaps more directly visible/felt, anyway. Consumers end up paying for it either way. Clearly I have no way to verify the number, but I saw it estimated (US) consumers pay ~$400 more annually per household for goods, due to shrink.
 
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Perhaps more directly visible/felt, anyway. Consumers end up paying for it either way. Clearly I have no way to verify the number, but I saw it estimated (US) consumers pay ~$400 more annually per household for goods, due to shrink.

It's just a really low act to thieve something off someone's private doorstep. I can imagine a bunch of old timers would come out with their shotgun carts full of rock salt back in the day.

"Hey boy, get you ass off of my property and don't steal ever again" Boom! Boom! both barrels in the backside as they scuttled away.
 
Can't see the word "shrinkage" without thinking of George Costanza from Seinfeld ... <G>

Package thieves are truly among the scum of the earth ... right up there with collections agents and telemarketers!
As George heard........." I'm sorry......oh, I am so sorry". Funniest episode I ever saw.
 
My "Ring Video Doorbell" has done wonders in reducing the people wandering through my property. The biggest benefit I have noticed is that the USPS/UPS/FedEx delivery people gently sit your package down instead of dropping them. 'Priceless"
 
You know the legal system has gone in the hopper when you read about a thief beaking in thru a window, dog bites him and he falls out and sprains or breaks his arm, gets caught, and sues you for the dog bite......
I seem to recall that is why someone said wait till they're in the house, then shoot! Don't want them falling back outside.....
 
The fact that someone can file a (frivolous) lawsuit doesn't mean much. Unless courts don't throw them out or juries side with the perp. If that starts happening a lot I will be worried.
 
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