Porch pirates

[Tortuga]

It's that time of year where porch pirates abound. You know, the person that pulls up in front of a house and grabs a recently delivered package.

 

I hope no one here has been victimized by a porch pirate.

 

I'm wondering if Amazon will eventually offer to include a GPS tracker in your order for an extra fee. 

 

For example, for an extra $5 they include a transmitter in your box, if your box arrives safely you put the transmitter in a prepaid envelope and mail it back to them. If they dont receive it back within a certain time, they charge you for it.

 

When they ship your package they email a tracking code that you use on a site designed to track their packages. 

 

Once the package is delivered to you and its logged into their system as being delivered, you get a text notification if it moves from its last location. 

 

That allows you to track the package to your porch and track it if it unexpectedly moves.

 

If you receive the package, you confirm you received it and the transmitter stops sending any notifications. 

 

Does that sound feasible?

[Brother Arellano]

Amazon has tried and failed at a few efforts. Sounds like they’d be open to that option at some point. I’ve always thought an Amazon package box you could buy would be a good deal. My brother always requests packages be dropped off on his back porch. UPS usually complies. 

[Tortuga]

It seems that if you had an Amazon account that you could login and track the package in real time and set up when you want to notified. Personally I'd set up notifications to alert me every time it moved from its last known location, or at least after it was logged as delivered. 

[Brother Arellano]

UPS does offer real time tracking if you have an account with them. It shows the truck location and a progress meter with steps like “in the area”, and “Almost there!”.

[Tortuga]

1 minute ago, Brother Arellano said:

UPS does offer real time tracking if you have an account with them. It shows the truck location and a progress meter with steps like “in the area”, and “Almost there!”.

I think that is based on the barcode and scanning at each location. A gps tracking device would tell you if the package moves after it is delivered. You could even notify the police and give them the location. 

[New World Explorer]

2 minutes ago, Brother Arellano said:

progress meter with steps like “in the area”, and “Almost there!”.

Progress meter "Almost there" is activated when package arrives in Alice Springs for delivery in Melbourne ...

That's how delivery works here Down Under .... LOL

[Brother Arellano]

An in package GPS would be nice. But for now it will show the truck GPS location with a little UPS truck that you  can watch drive through the street. Fun but has always always seemed like a security risk to me. 

 

(Image taken from Google) 

[➕👇 ꓤꓱꓷꓠꓵ🎵Tone]

Sounds something like the Uber app. The $5 I think is the issue. It would prob cost more, and if stolen, expensive to replace, so $5 won't cut it.
You could put up door camera. You can them post the video of the culprit. Maybe get some income from the YouTube royalties. And shame the perp (Sorry, watching too many crime movies)

Older {waiting for wiser}

[➕👇 ꓤꓱꓷꓠꓵ🎵Tone]

What about a red dye bomb with a code only the purchaser knows. If someone steals the package, it is unusable.
A cheap, but nasty option I guess.
Might produce some red faces.

Older {waiting for wiser}

[Thesauron]

Here a delivery company would never just drop off packages in front of your door. They ring the doorbell. If you aren’t at home to sign for it, they will leave the package at a drop off agent, such as a nearby store.

[Qapla]

Porch Pirates would just devise a method to defeat the tracker - like tossing the box and/or the tracker back in the front yard after they empty the box into their back seat

[carlos]

1 hour ago, Thesauron said:

Here a delivery company would never just drop off packages in front of your door. They ring the doorbell. If you aren’t at home to sign for it, they will leave the package at a drop off agent, such as a nearby store.

Yes, same here. A person has to receive it and sign the delivery note. Just dropping something in front of your home is unthinkable here.

[Hope]

I have all deliveries made to my work address and I carry them home.

 

The only thing I have delivered to my door is 40 lbs of cat litter.  Which is very heavy... and undesirable 

[Loopy]

I had ordered a tablet for a friend that was delivered to my front door and left there. I was gone that day but had gotten a notification that it had been left there. Fortunately it was still there when I got home. 

 

 

[Tortuga]

8 hours ago, TonyWenz said:

Sounds something like the Uber app. The $5 I think is the issue. It would prob cost more, and if stolen, expensive to replace, so $5 won't cut it.

There are inexpensive GPS trackers available online so the equipment wouldn't be that expensive. The consumer would be renting the tracker so it seems it would pay for itself very quickly. If the tracker isn't returned or is stolen, then the cost of tracker is charged to the consumer. $5 may not be the right price, it was just an example.  

[Tortuga]

2 hours ago, Qapla said:

Porch Pirates would just devise a method to defeat the tracker - like tossing the box and/or the tracker back in the front yard after they empty the box into their back seat

That would probably happen most of the time. OTOH, there are videos of a single person just walking away with a package, so a tracker may work some of the time. It would also boost consumer confidence and possibly generate additional income.

[Brother Arellano]

I think it would be a real deterrent. There’s a YouTube video floating around who tried an experiment with including trackers. All in all he lost some trackers. So as a way to recover packages I don’t think it would work. As a deterrent it would keep the more casual thieves away. 

[rocket]

Maybe they need to attach a Flashbang Grenade to the package and scare the pee out of them. Package blows up, perp breaks leg fleeing.

[Brother Arellano]

3 minutes ago, rocket said:

Maybe they need to attach a Flashbang Grenade to the package and scare the pee out of them. Package blows up, perp breaks leg fleeing.

There’s a few of these on YouTube. 

 

 

[Miss Bea]

12 hours ago, Brother Arellano said:

Amazon has tried and failed at a few efforts. Sounds like they’d be open to that option at some point. I’ve always thought an Amazon package box you could buy would be a good deal. My brother always requests packages be dropped off on his back porch. UPS usually complies. 

We live rural, so our Amazon packages get delivered to the store! All safe and sound. But, if we lived where they did deliver to homes, we’d have a drop box on the porch, a nice one, with a lock. It would just be a part of the house! 

[Miss Bea]

12 minutes ago, rocket said:

Maybe they need to attach a Flashbang Grenade to the package and scare the pee out of them. Package blows up, perp breaks leg fleeing.

I think a real, real stinky stink would be apropos! One not easily washed off. 

[Qapla]

I sure wouldn't want to live in the neighborhood where that house in the video is - how many different porch pirates tried for that package

 

We also live rural - FedEx and UPS deliver to our house. If no one is home and a signature is not required, they either leave it on the porch or at our Post Office. Since no one can see our house, we have never lost a package - besides, most porch pirates probably can't run anywhere close to 30 mph

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tortuga]

On 12/13/2018 at 9:34 AM, Miss Bea said:

I think a real, real stinky stink would be apropos! One not easily washed off. 

 

[Miss Bea]

What sort of scares me in this day and age, one does not know the mental state of these individuals. I’ve learned not to respond to a situation that could escalate. At all. They maybe thieving opportunists, or mentally unbalanced. And, a lot of them are running around. I don’t want them to know I exist. 

As this system rushes to its end...

[Hope]

2 hours ago, Tortuga said:

 

 

I just watched this video this morning... it is a thing of beauty!  So satisfying...