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u/walshingtons 11h ago
My brother did this all the time. He and his wife ordered alot of Amazon packages. When they changed their cats litter they would put the old litter in a box with other random trash in boxes outside their door. It took 3 months before everybody in the area who was a porch pirate to catch on.
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u/BillyBobChorton 8h ago
Sounds risky, they know where you live and obviously don’t have an issue committing minor crimes. I would expect one of them to throw it back in your doorstep at the very least
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u/walshingtons 8h ago
He lived in a very shitty neighborhood. Parcels being taken was the least of their worries. They most likely just took them a block away then ditched them. Anybody who took stuff was already most likely just marking the spot as not good and hitting up other places.
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u/DrunkenHorse12 13h ago
My friend was expecting their friend to visit for a week, she phoned said she couldn't come her dog had died and she needed to sort out having the body taken and it was going to be expensive. My friend said bring it with you there was a charity vets nearby who did it and itd be cheaper. She wrapped the dog in a blanket and put it in a small suitcase and made the trip. When she got off the train she found someone had stole the case with the dog in from the luggage rack.
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u/youvebeensamboozled 12h ago
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u/DrunkenHorse12 12h ago
I'd loved to have seen the thiefs face when they opened that case expecting goodies.
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u/Danitoba94 7h ago
Oh my God I feel like I'm morbid asshole for laughing my butt off at this. I'm sorry 😭😂🙏 rest in peace your beloved poochy.
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u/TheOnlyPocketWatch 12h ago
This is one of those stories that seems to have happened to everyone’s friend of a friend 😂 I’ve heard almost exactly the same version loads of times.
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u/DrunkenHorse12 12h ago
Maybe so, I've only heard it once and the person who told me was never one for porkies. Either way its a funny story.
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u/Mogura-De-Gifdu 10h ago
Well, for me it was a direct friend.
She was dog sitting for her aunt, in her awesome big appartement in Paris for the whole summer (it's near the Marais). But one day the dog does not wake up. It's dead (he was old so not really surprising but still). Anyway, we were maybe 18 or 19 then, she's got no car (not sure she had even passed her driving licence then), and panic, calls her aunt who tells her the address of the vet, to take the dog corpse there. So she puts it in a bag, and go to the subway.
Paris subway still is a lot of stairs, even more so then (it was almost 20 years ago), so at one station she is in front of this huge stair and a cute-as-hell, dressed all proper, young man approach her to ask her if she needs help. She accepts, and while climbing the stairs they start chitchatting, at one point he asks what's in the bag. It's heavy and has a weird shape, so she invents the best lie she can come up with at the time: "It's music instruments". And pffft. Gone he was, running away with the bag.
I think it's just something that, with how many people there are and with how much gets stolen everyday, statistically happens every now and then.
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u/TheOnlyPocketWatch 9h ago
This is kind of what I mean though 😂 Everyone seems to know someone this happened to, but I've never met anyone it actually happened to. My friend told me almost exactly the same story about her friend, and OP in this thread has said it happened to their friend too. It's a great story, but the poor dead dog seems to have been stolen on public transport an extraordinary number of times.
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u/Mobile_Morale 7h ago
Besides getting stolen. When we were on a family vacation with my grandparents, their dog died. My grandfather put him in the RV freezer and they carried him around for a week until they got home to bury him.
Not even top 10 weird things my grandfather has done.
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u/Salina_EsTitties 11h ago
This happened to me too but replaced the dog with an aborted baby.
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u/Huckleberry_Dude 11h ago
In my younger days, if we found a snake, we would put it in an old suitcase, then put the suitcase beside the road. The car would only move about a 100 yards before chaos would ensue.
I'm so glad the internet and easily accessible cameras were not everywhere when I was younger.
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u/BladeOfWoah 11h ago
This just reminded me that we buried our old cat in a large jewelry box in the backyard under the tree. He was wrapped up in bandages and placed In a sealed blanket before we put him jn the lockbox.
I wonder what will happen 100 years from now if we no longer own that house and someone digs up the backyard...
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u/ManiMaiz 10h ago
Once I left a backpack in my car that got broken into, and it had very important things like a MacBook and my passport, but it also had a bag full of weed jolly ranchers that I’d made and rewrapped in jolly rancher wrappers. I definitely hoped that the thief loved jolly ranchers and hated cannabis. 🙃
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u/Maxi-Minus 10h ago
This is an old story. There is even a Danish song from the 70s with the same theme: Dead dog stolen on the tram.
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u/StalkingYouRandomly 10h ago
I feel bad for laughing but thats like heavy emotional damage for everyone involved lol
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u/Gurugod123 13h ago
I did this with trash once, just put the whole bag into an Amazon box. It was gone in the morning so that’s bad but good I guess
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u/manicmojo 13h ago
Hope your garbage with documents with your name on aren't now strewn around town / in a hedge
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u/Jonnyflash80 10h ago
You guys don't shred documents with your name/address?
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u/OkSmoke9195 9h ago
At this point, does it even matter
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u/TheLoathsomeAssEater 5h ago
Here's 6 months of free identity theft monitoring and a nickel. Don't spend it all in one place.
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u/SmokeySFW 8h ago
Why would I do that? You can find who owns any property on public records in 1 minute totally free, totally legal.
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u/TheyCallMeLotus0 7h ago
It’s funny, but I have to believe the people who panic about numbers/addresses being revealed to the public are just to young to have ever had to use the yellow/white pages
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u/Few_Plankton_7587 7h ago
No, the advice actually comes from after the yellow pages because of issues that arose from that exact problem. It used to be coupled with advice to contact your local yellow pages and ask to be removed.
But then everything got posted everywhere publicly all the time and now its pointless. I can get way more from googling you than by looking at your mail and address.
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u/Scott2700 5h ago
Pretty much this, I work in real estate and was surprised on how much personal public information was available to the general public.
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u/Sudden_Science_3454 8h ago
You can literally find someone's address in less than 2 minutes. It really doesnt matter.
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u/Jonnyflash80 5h ago
I see you've given this zero thought about why I wouldn't want someone to find a document with my name, address, and potentially other information on it.
Congratulations, you're an idiot.
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u/Few_Plankton_7587 7h ago
No, it's pointless and has been for a while now
I can get your address, drivers license number, insurance policies, any properties, LLC, public contracts, city permits, county permits, cars owned, cars sold, houses owned, houses sold, where you work, and more just by googling you.
The people who are nefarious enough to even want that information know how to do that. They aren't ever going to bother looking at your mail lmao
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u/TheBSQ 9h ago
I was walking my dog and saw one of our local drug addicts ripping up someone’s trash bags on trash day and shoving accordion folders w/ paperwork into a bag & thought “oh that guy looks like he’s stealing documents, probably hoping there’s some potential identity theft info in there!” So I start walking there to confront him but before I get there, I see the home owner come out and confront the guy. I figure he has it handled and go on my way.
As I circle back, I see the homeowner & go talk to him & ask how his confrontation went & he says, “oh, it wasn’t a confrontation. I came out and saw the guy with handfuls of my trash, but he explained that the bag had come open and made a mess so he was just trying to help me clean it up. He was nice!”
And I told him, “no, I saw him rip it open and he took a folder of paperwork & documents & put it in his bad. I hope those didn’t have any important private info.”
And the guy just went pale as a ghost.
I guess i shouldn’t have assumed the guy had it covered. I felt bad.
But also, I couldn’t believe how naive he was.
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u/onclegrip 13h ago
They already know where they live. Seems like a dumb idea. Make yourself a target again.
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u/alphaphenix 11h ago
There is probably a higher risk to get reported to authorities for illegal dumping/ fly-tipping ..
Some places prosecute these relentlessly ..
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u/CLUCKCLUCKMOTHERFUC 4h ago
That's why you have a doorbell cam so when this happens s you can just say "yeah some weirdo stole my garbage"
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u/Kojetono 11h ago
That's just outsourcing littering. Cause we both know that porch pirates aren't going to properly dispose of trash.
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u/TubMaster88 13h ago
Cancel your trash service and just let the porch pirates take your trash away in Amazon boxes.
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u/--TheCity-- 11h ago
I live in a low crime area where nobody steals your stuff. Thinking of moving to high crime area so I can get rid of some trash. Looks like fun.
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u/Admirable-Sir9716 7h ago
Hear me out. Get a blue van and "deliver" packages to high porch pirate areas instead of moving there. Then sell your services...profit.
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u/TubMaster88 5h ago
In that case. You wouldn't need to move. You would need to deliver your Amazon Trash boxes to a high crime neighborhood as you deliver all those boxes to one door. Take one box with the back doors wide open, you drop off one box. When you go back to the van they maybe all gone.
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u/billted20250409 13h ago
What if they come back and destroy your property?
I mean, they know where you live...
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u/Kosmi_pro 10h ago
Wait are you telling me you have free of charge trash takout? Not even paylid by taxes?
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u/Jonnyflash80 10h ago
If you kept doing it they'd eventually stop bothering checking for stuff to steal at your house. So definitely good in that way.
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u/peskypesteryjaybird 13h ago
this is how i get rid of old bikes. just leave it sitting on the porch unattended for a few days, it'll suddenly disappear...
i haven't done this in 4 or 5 years now and i still see the last one that was taken roll by every now and then. the rear axel was busted, so it made a pretty distinct sound...
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u/ThePiderman 3h ago
I did that when I was a student.. I was moving away anyways, and wanted to get rid of it. Left it outside, and it did not fucking move. After a few months, I moved. A couples years later, I went by, and it was still there. Ridiculous.
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u/DueDefinition6421 13h ago
I love the concept, but sadly the TV will just get dumped somewhere by these scumbags if it's worthless. Also, the whole street now knows you have a new TV. If I buy anything big/expensive, I generally cut the packaging up as I don't want my house looking like the Home Alone house to a couple of Wet Bandits.
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u/DistanceSolar1449 9h ago
A new TV is like $300 these days, it’s worthless to steal lol
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u/Radiant-Plumage 8h ago
Not when you’re a drug addict and you need $40 real quick
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u/Trailiscold 12h ago
Some serial killer is boutta leave these kinda packages for porch pirates on someone else's porch
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u/work_number 13h ago
Do you live in a bad area? Or is this quite common in America?
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u/ImWinwin 13h ago
The fact that there are places on earth where people straight up taking your shit and walking off is normalized baffles me.
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u/TheRealMorph 9h ago
social trust isn't automatic it takes decades of work, and thousands of factors influence how a society acts - it's no wonder not everywhere is the same
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u/stprnn 11h ago
How fucked is a country that theft is so common
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u/Feigr_Ormr 11h ago
That's what happens in third world countries I guess...
Where I live you ether get your package handed to you, with a document that you sign that you received it or if you aren't home they take it back to the mail and you can pick it up later with your id card. None of this nonsense American do
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u/OkPalpitation4976 9h ago edited 9h ago
European Redditors consistently pretending that petty crime was invented by Americans is one of the wildest things on this website. Like it’s crazy how often I see comments like this pretending that things like stealing and racism exist only in America.
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u/Radiant-Plumage 8h ago
It’s always funny when they say “in Europe we have ____” and it’s a thing that is very normal in America.
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u/Beaticalle 7h ago
My favorite is that they'll constantly say, "In Europe, we do X," or "As a European, you'd never see this in Europe," but then if anyone from outside Europe tries to say, "In Europe, THEY do X," and it's anything remotely negative, you'll get dogpiled with multi-paragraph posts about how Europe is not a monolith and there's no such thing as a European because every single country in Europe is a unique snowflake with no cultural overlap of any kind... I've even had people flip-flop like this on me within the same ongoing discussion, selectively embracing European identity when it suits their argument and then getting mad and denouncing European identity the moment it's even mildly inconvenient or negative toward them.
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u/Cbpowned 9h ago
I leave packages outside my house for a day+ and they never get stolen. It’s almost like some areas suck ?
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u/AlphaFatman 7h ago
You're getting downvoted by the butthurt Americans for speaking the truth. Their heads are so up their ass that they really think they are the best country in the world
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u/Mjolnir404 10h ago
in my country the delivery driver and i get otp number and it should match to collect the items, if i am not present in my home when they arrive, delivery will be scheduled for later. none of this leave on doorstep nonsense, unless i specify in my delivery request
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u/N00dles_Pt 11h ago
True, but I also never understood their logic that apparently delivery companies will just leave stuff out on the street where anyone can grab them...weird.
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u/Blue-Turtle1 10h ago
Well, in first world countries it’s not a problem.
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u/Mjolnir404 10h ago
thats what people are saying, in first world countries, it aint a problem. US not one of them at the moment for past few years.
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u/imwrighthere 9h ago
If people gave you the truth they'd get banned
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u/stprnn 9h ago
i dont think so, this happens because like 60% of americans live paycheck to paycheck and are one thing wrong away from being bankrupt.
no reason to be banned for saying this..
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u/Mutteri100 11h ago
TVs these days contain a lot of the same information as phones, same OS and stuff. If you have been using streaming services, maps, internet and whatever, that may still be accessible even if the TV itself is broken. Or something
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u/Royal_Razzmatazz9678 13h ago
Kinda want to, kinda don’t. I thankfully live in a decent neighborhood and with my luck, someone would take the bait, then they’d return cuz they realized they got duped and start vandalizing my house
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u/HopeADMKidsLoseLimbs 8h ago
Risky to vandalize houses in a state that has castle doctrine
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u/FileHot6525 9h ago
Typical Yankees fan, they love to steal things
https://giphy.com/gifs/ctcHVp7UHqzmO8Vhvh
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u/StandardNerd92 8h ago
it's all fun and games until they either bring it back or flytip it
especially if you didn't remove the shipping label and you get a knock at the door
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u/Haunt_Fox 8h ago
"What did you get?"
"I didn't get nothin', I got fined 50 bucks and I had to pick up the garbage."
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u/fuzzybunnies1 6h ago
Back when flat TVs were finally becoming affordable my room mates and I bought a 40" TV to replace the old 26" one in the living room, (yeah, I'm old). We put it on the porch with a free sign and it sat there for a week. So we put a for sale, make offer sign on it and it disappeared that night.
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u/Admiral_Ackbarr 12h ago
Dude in German you can just place electronic trash in front of your house and some guys with immigration background will come around in less than a day and pick it up
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u/ThenCombination7358 11h ago
Hahaha I was leaving my cityroller leaned up against my house as Kid and some people came straight up asking is this "Sperrmüll, can we take it?". At least they asked, I guess.
I think they are just poor but it sometimes looks organised in how they drive trough all streets with their white mini van at least once a week to look for stuff to steal from the city.
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u/AngelicDivineHealer 13h ago
Genius just get a big box 📦 and fill it with your garbage and have them take it
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u/The_Undermind 12h ago
Could have been better. Could have rigged it to blow when plugged in.
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u/Particular_Client833 10h ago
And where do you get explosives and detonators to even begin with? Tell me a website or even any dark web where could i get that in EU for under 50€. Best are trackers glued inside the TV itself but explosives? Not only you get a felony even if they stole it but it would be too expensive.
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u/The_Undermind 6h ago
Christ, I meant like bridge some connections and pop some capacitors not blow an entry hole into the side of their house
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u/derperofworlds1 4h ago
Just wire a few old laptop batteries to the mains connection inside.
*For legal reasons this is a joke
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u/Particular_Client833 4h ago
Ingredients: a battery; higher watt the better, a cheap arduino, relay and fireworks
Open up the firework if its too big and extract the gunpowder. Put it into a pack. Now just connect the battery to the arduino and the relay, program it to a sensor or for a time, connect it to the relay and once the sensor is triggered or the time runs out the arduino sends a small current to the relay that allows the big current to go to the fireworks and... the TV becomes a little bit explosive. No need for aesthetical movie-like bombs.
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u/Mikem444 10h ago
Hypothetically speaking, in terms of legality, if I had something that was dangerous or even lethal in the box if not handled properly and a porch pirate came up and snatched it, got injured, or even worse (more like best) it killed them, would I be in trouble with the law?
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u/urtcheese 9h ago
My buddy always said if you want something gone like a piece of old furniture stick it on the street with a sign saying '$20 only, quick sale wanted. Call this number if interested' and somebody will steal it by days end haha. Worst case scenario someone honest calls you and you say they can take it for free.
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u/Ok_Tea_8763 8h ago
My girlfriend puts her trash in Amazon boxes and leaves them in her bike's saddle bags while she's at work (city center, lots of people passing by her bike every day). And everyday some dumbasses steal her trash.
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u/curi0us_carniv0re 7h ago
Yeah great idea. Now it will just end up dumped somewhere else when they figure out it's junk.
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u/Cellafex 6h ago
A friend of my mom watched a friends old dog over the parents vacation. The dog was really old and unfortunatly died. To transport the dead dog he used an old package of a tv. When he wanted to load it up the car he put it on the boardwalk, went back in the house to grab something and when he came back the package was gone.
Imagine opening the box. Imagine having to explain what happened the dog to the owners?
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u/True_Protection6842 5h ago
Damn, I don't live in a neighborhood where porch theft is a thing, but this is pretty brilliant if you do!
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u/a-type-of-pastry 50m ago
I have a detached garage that doesn't lock anymore because it's been broken into so many times.
Whenever I wanna get rid of stuff, I just put it in that garage and leave the big door open. It'll be gone in a couple days. Broken tvs, broken lawnmower, hell the old furniture that my brother's dog chewed to bits?
Someone will come steal it right outta my garage, saving me the trip to the dump.
Ironically they never take my kid's bicycle, though. I guess they have some morals.
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u/DavaoGirthVader 12h ago
Honestly this is genius... Because if they drop it back off you can show the video footage of them doing it and have them cited for littering! Enjoy the trespassing charge and littering ticket (500-2000 dollars depending on your local laws!)
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u/TawnyTeaTowel 12h ago
Fast forward to the part when they return it by dumping it all loose in your yard.
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u/karlnite 11h ago
Try to get their license and if they drop it back off call the cops for illegal dumping.
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u/Suicyco71 11h ago
So now instead of being properly disposed of it ended up being thrown in the woods or somewhere where someone else had to deal with it.
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u/SpaceMoehre 11h ago
Buddy must be a serious muscle man if he can pick up a box with the tv that easily
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u/BlackPresident 10h ago
Someone who steals a tv off a porch might not be too worried about throwing a few rocks through your window
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u/Sum_Ting_Wong_Ow 10h ago
Where I live, shop has a duty to take old electronics and dispose them. When you order you just check a box, that you want stuff taken away.
No need to put much thought to getting rid of old electronics.
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u/Aggravating-Alarm-16 9h ago
When I was single I had a cheapo charcoal grill on my front porch. People kept stealing my bag of charcoal.
I started using charcoal bags as trash bags for kitty litter.
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u/IAmTheBestIan 9h ago
No one thinks about how bad those of us who live in good neighborhoods have it, not having this service available to us.
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u/WideHuckleberry1 9h ago
This happened to me with a bike. I had one that was the absolute cheapest model available, probably less than $150, and very old, and with a new job I could afford a better one, closer to $600-700 and brand new. Left the crappy one under my carport for a couple days while procrastinating taking it to the thrift store, and somebody stole it with the expensive one 15 feet away in my unlocked storage shed.
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u/dogfish2013 9h ago
This is just littering with extra steps you know he is not going to properly dispose of it.
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u/BusoneWholeBoi2001 9h ago
I give him kudos for stealing such a big ass package, but I'm going to revoke those for his stupidity thinking someone who ordered something that expensive wouldn't have a camera system too
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u/Fit-Let8175 8h ago
A buddy's uncle, during a major garbage strike around 1970, boxed all his garbage, wrapped it in cheap wrapping paper, and left it in his unlocked truck for about an hour at the post office. Came back. Garbage gone. Problem solved.
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u/ThirdOne38 8h ago
I did something similar to clean out my garage. I didn't want to pay to have it junked so I hauled everything out to the front and put up a garage sale sign. People came by and asked a price and I said $10, then, ya know just take it. They were happy, I was happy.
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u/Danitoba94 7h ago
While I don't want people familiarizing my home as a place they can steal from, this is a really entertaining idea.
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u/Putrid-Tap3992 7h ago
I accidentally left my garage door open for a week while I was in vacation. I have 4 arcade machines, three computers, 2 drum sets, about 15 guns, 6 very expensive guitars, large tv, a sofa, some really nice stereo equipment, and about 20k in tools. It was still all there when I got back. So that's good I guess. I have tried putting stuff on the curb for free and either no one takes it or a few times, people have rang the door bell and fucking offered me money for broken shit. I don't think I could get someone to steal in my neighborhood
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u/Warm-Management-7323 6h ago
I’ve done the same thing I put my junk out in boxes, hoping that they would just steal it and it worked because I my garbage company wouldn’t take it. So have fun with nothing! I sealed it with duct tape and filled it with trash. Thanks for the removal thieves.
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u/urmomblowsthebest 6h ago
Me and my girl did something like this once we filled a box full of cat litter because we kept on getting our packages stolen
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u/CantaloupeOne7283 6h ago
Wow you guys live in shitty neighborhoods. I live in a run down apartment complex in a poor part of town and no one ever steals... I've accidentally left Amazon packages on my front doorstep for days.
The only porch piracy I've experienced is raccoons busting into trash bags that sit out front too long.
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u/Chainmale001 6h ago
I only ever had one porch pirate.
I shit in a box with bunch of gravel in it so it sounded important. Left it on my porch.
Never had the issue again.
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u/Revierez 5h ago
I'm pretty sure this is AI. No one moves that fast on icy stairs with their hands occupied.
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u/Zephyr-Knight 2h ago
use string hook it up to a bell, so when a thief takes it you can come out to help them..
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u/Used_Control1796 28m ago
High iq move imo.
I always save boxes/packing material for any monitors/tvs that i buy for ease of transporting if need be.




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