Rural porch pirates: ideas?

[Jstpssng]

Not everyone can afford a properly trained guard dog. There’s the purchase of the dog, immunizations, vet bills, food and a lot of time that it takes to train and look after the dog.
Why should anyone have to go through all these expenses to prevent this now rampant theft crime? We know it’s the new norm of minimal charges or no imprisonment, even glamorization of it that’s the cause!
Does everyone have to own security cameras, guard dogs, guns, alarms or can we be tough enough on crime to greatly reduce it?

You left out insurance... guaranteed that if your dog does anything to a thief he's going to sue you.

 

[Hay Dude]

Once again, it seems like a shifting from severe punishment of the perpetrators of theft to putting the burden on the victims of crime.
Yeah good point on the dog with liability insurance

 

[4570Man]

Once again, it seems like a shifting from severe punishment of the perpetrators of theft to putting the burden on the victims of crime.

If the punishment for stealing was hanging there would be a lot less issues in the world. As it is there’s more repercussions for trying to stop or prevent crime then there is for actually doing the crime.

 

[Hay Dude]

If the punishment for stealing was hanging there would be a lot less issues in the world.

Quite a radical shift too far in the other direction….

I think the old saying “let the punishment fit the crime” would be what’s needed.

Personally, I think public shaming, caning or some other form of effective punishment is what we need to bring back. It’s cheap and easy. They do this is some countries still and crime is extremely low.

Spending a few weeks in a cell with meals, bed, TV, phone, visitation, gym, etc. for punishment is not effective punishment and it’s crazy expensive and our rates of recidivism are high. It doesn’t work

 

[4570Man]

Quite a radical shift too far in the other direction….

I think the old saying “let the punishment fit the crime” would be what’s needed.

Personally, I think public shaming, caning or some other form of effective punishment is what we need to bring back. It’s cheap and easy. They do this is some countries still and crime is extremely low.

Spending a few weeks in a cell with meals, bed, TV, phone, visitation, gym, etc. for punishment is not effective punishment and it’s crazy expensive and our rates of recidivism are high. It doesn’t work

Maybe cutting their hand off for the first offense would be better. Stealing is about as low as it gets especially stealing stuff someone else needs to make their living. If they like having both hands they could always try not stealing stuff. If there was a severe punishment they would seriously think because stealing something.

 

[Hay Dude]

Maybe cutting their hand off for the first offense would be better. Stealing is about as low as it gets especially stealing stuff someone else needs to make their living. If they like having both hands they could always try not stealing stuff. If there was a severe punishment they would seriously think because stealing something.

Too drastic. Dear God, you’d have the ACLU all over that and you’d have to pay a surgeon to cut the hand off and let the person sit in a hospital. Too drastic and expensive
Public humiliation or corporal punishment for petty crimes, or public work details (pick up trash along roads, etc.) is very cheap, easy, effective. Two brothers (both friends of mine) work at the local county prison. It’s a revolving door of the same couple hundred clowns. It doesn’t work.

 

[Root Cause]

My guess is that any property with cameras and dogs is nearly risk-free from thieves. Theives are lazy but not stupid. It's too easy to move onto a location without multi-layered security.

I trained dogs many years ago. I will not own an attack dog. Too much liability as others stated but also too much continuous training. A medium-sized dog or bigger that barks will convince almost anyone to move along.

 

[Hay Dude]

I bet them porch pirates bring a pocketful of Scooby snacks.

 

[oosik]

For the first fifteen years or so - the delivery boys ( Big Brown, UPS, etc ) drove down my driveway. One mile down to my house. Then one winter Big Brown got stuck in my driveway. The tractor - heavy nylon strap - he was free again.

Since then - at my request - all packages are in a heavy garbage bag - hanging on the outer gate. This has worked just fine for twenty five years.

 

[newbury]

I deal with this both rural and suburban.
The only way I've found to deal with it is first don't order stuff that HAS to be delivered only 1 way, to the billing address.
For Mississippi I'll order stuff to be delivered to my BIL (thank you Mike!) or my MIL, both "townies".
"Stuff" to be delivered to my door is monitored by several video cams.

In Virginia I've several close "drop off places" for Amazon, FedEx, etc.

 

[TractorGuy]

How close are you to a post office, UPS store, or Fed Ex store/drop point (one is at my local Walgreens.)

You can then set it up to have your packages dropped in those related locations.

For example, I've done the free sign up for UPS that allows me several perks. One of them is instead of dropping your packages at your home, they will deliver to the UPS store/drop point where you can pick up.

My UPS account just up and stopped sending me any tracking info. I have tried like the dickens to remove my gate code from their system to stop the drivers from entering my property after dark. I remove it on the web site, log out, log back in, and the field is repopulated. Spent and hour on the phone with them the other day. After being transferred three times the Lady with the furrin accent told me she couldn't get in my account and make any changes unless I had a current tracking number.

I haven't had a notice from them in a year or more. Fedex and USPS notify me every step of the way.

 

[zzvyb6]

I got a 30 x 96" plastic container for patio cushion storage off of Marketplace for $15. An old "Deliveries Only" metal sign got turned into "Deliveries". I have a driveway alarm sender right there. It sets off my railroad crossing lights & bell and also a rotating red light halfway up to the house. The dogs here the alarm and they voices can be heard at the street.

For oversized outbound packages, I found a 50's era truck fuel tank that looks like a huge mailbox and turned it into a huge mailbox thats located 1/2 way up to the house. When it has something for a carrier, we indicate this in the street box. Very simple but effective. We also tend to know the vehicles of property owners and if a stranger floats down the road, I go to code yellow. I also tend to fire a few rifle rounds at unscheduled times of the day and evening and like all to know this resource is on duty. But, the rail crossing bell and flashing lights makes it obvious to anyone nearby, that Trouble is coming to dinner. I've had visitors waiting for 20 minutes for the train to pass by.

 

[jyoutz]

Not everyone can afford a properly trained guard dog. There’s the purchase of the dog, immunizations, vet bills, food and a lot of time that it takes to train and look after the dog. Some people are allergic to dogs.
Why should anyone have to go through all these expenses to prevent this now rampant theft crime? We know it’s the “new norm” of minimal charges or no imprisonment, even glamorization of it that’s the cause!
Does everyone have to own security cameras, guard dogs, guns, alarms or can we be tough enough on crime to greatly reduce it?

What rural home doesn’t have a “king of the place “ farm dog or two?

 

[Hay Dude]

What rural home doesn’t have a “king of the place “ farm dog or two?

Probably very few, but hopefully you realize there’s millions of homes with porches that aren’t rural

 

[jyoutz]

Probably very few, but hopefully you realize there’s millions of homes with porches that aren’t rural

I thought this discussion was about rural porch pirates?

 

[bcp]

 

[beowulf]

You did not say if you have a gate at the driveway - or how far in from the road it is situated. I ask because our driveway gate is about 850 feet from the house but also about 40 feet from the highway and that set-back makes it hard to see unless you are looking for it. The delivery guys pull in, put the packages over the fence (the gate is locked) and we have never lost anything. So if you can manage to do something like that it may be helpful. We also have a Chamberlain gate alarm that beeps in the house whenever anyone approaches the gate so we know when a delivery is made. And finally, I put in a solar powered fake video camera out there - it looks real and has a small blinking red light. I even ran electrical conduit down the post and into the ground to make it look even more legit. I know it fools some, because a few days ago I heard the beep and looked out to see three guys (local tree crew triming wires near power lines) facing the camera and waving their hands.

Now for a story - I ordered a small box of mothballs (mice deterrent). When they did not come I checked with the delivery company -not UPS but a local delivery company notorious for not delivering - even arrested one driver for stealing a couple dozen boxes. They said the order was delivered but they would check again. Yep, they were delivered per the driver. I insisted they were not - they insisted they were. After arguing a bit I finally said do you guys really $&$#g think I'm lying to you just to score another box of %*#$g mothballs. They arranged a refund.

 

[bcp]

It isn't always pirates.

ravine fedex at DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo. Privacy, Simplified.

duckduckgo.com

Bruce

 

[3 Horse Ranch]

Personally, I think public shaming, caning or some other form of effective punishment is what we need to bring back. It’s cheap and easy. They do this is some countries still and crime is extremely low.

Visions of a weather protected plexiglass stockade in the town square with prisoners in color coded jumpsuits, green for porch pirates, yellow for shoplifting, etc, etc.

 

[mikester]

I'd like to minimize delivery trucks on my 5/8 mile, soft-when-wet lane. Thinking about mounting a job box or similar down by the road and train the drivers to lock packages in it instead of racing up to the house as fast as the potholes will allow them to drive. Seems like they would cooperate since deliveries/day is one of their metrics, and it's 2 minutes drive time each way. Anybody tried this or see any problems?

BTW, Consumer Reports reviewed plastic drop boxes targeted at more urban areas and mentioned urban theft is 16% vs 8% rural theft. (A plastic box at my place would just be a beacon.)

Exactly what are you trying to achieve?

Less delivery truck traffic? Stop ordering deliveries

Too many pot holes? Fix your driveway properly

Worried about crime? Buy insurance or move to a low crime location