Sometimes things just make you see red, like an enraged bull who just charges at the first thing it sees. One thing that is great at making people incandescent with rage are package thieves. There’s something about having something that you’ve paid for and been eagerly waiting for just shamelessly nabbed by someone.
If you’ve ever had a package stolen, you will appreciate this story by Reddit user u/Afterthelimits, who tells of how she managed to get her package-thieving neighbor and his friends arrested.
More info: Reddit
Package thieves are awful, always stealing your new mail-order hoodie or randomly specific part they won't ever use
Image credits: Joel de Vriend (not the actual image)
A woman shared her story of dealing with a really annoying neighbor that would cause so many problems, the worst of which was stealing her packages all the time
Image credits: u/Afterthelimits
Image credits: RODNAE Productions (not the actual image)
Tired of putting up with it, she put up cameras, recorded the neighbor stealing fake packages she'd set up and promptly forwarded it to the authorities
Image credits: u/Afterthelimits
Image credits: Lukasz Klimkiewicz (not the actual image)
Not long after, police got in touch with her and she relayed to them that besides thieving often, the neighbor was also selling class A illegal substances
Image credits: u/Afterthelimits
Several days later, a 15-man police raid came down on the neighbor, since which he has been gone for a month now
The original poster (OP) begins her story with the fact that she’s had a problem neighbor for many years. He was an addict and a dealer and would be frequently visited by people who would break into cars, houses, steal packages, trash the area, and be a nuisance to everyone around.
OP decided that his behavior was enough and took matters into her own hands - she wouldn’t have $311 (£250) worth of packages stolen. She set up a camera in the main area. After filling some boxes with apples and plastic packages and then setting them outside the door, the bait had been set. In only a couple of minutes, the package was predictably stolen and the theft was reported to the police with the damning evidence.
Several days later the police raided the neighbor's home with about 15 officers and seized entire boxes of illegal substances. OP’s camera also captured all of this, so she sent it over to the landlord, who did well to kick the guy out on top of him being arrested. A month later, the guy still isn’t back, with loads of mail piled up by his door. Oh, the irony…
In order to find out more about the story, Bored Panda reached out to the poster of the story, u/Afterthelimits who graciously replied with some more details!
It turns out that the neighbor’s friends would steal most of the packages, but the neighbor would also be guilty of accepting packages on OP’s behalf and never giving them over or only after he opened them himself. Besides dealing illegal substances, the police also linked them to a string of car robberies in the area.
The one time they knew they had been caught was over the camera footage, but she didn’t bother confronting them, as she was going to reach out to the police. “I knew it was them and they knew I knew. “
Image credits: Rosemary Ketchum (not the actual image)
Besides the theft, the neighbor and his friends would be aggressive all the time. “I once got shouted at for closing the front door because they wanted to keep it open at all times, I got in a shouting match with his friend because he pushed me,” she says.
OP would also get into arguments about property damage caused by the neighbor. She even had to break up a fight that sparked between another neighbor’s son and him over the things he was doing.
Speaking more about the police raid, it took all the way from 7AM to 12PM. “I was actually really excited to watch it play out, if felt like he was finally getting what was coming to him,” Afterthelimits says. She was confused as it was super early, but she understood what was going on when she saw all the plain clothes officers.
From her experience, she also has some advice for people who are dealing with neighbors like this. You should gather as much evidence as you can and keep a detailed log. Get a camera and record any and every thing that is relevant to the issue and forward it to the authorities.
If package thieves are your problem, get a camera and try to time deliveries on the days when you’re at home. “Or you can do what I did and set up fake packages and send the footage to the police once they’re inevitably taken!!” she finishes.
Value Penguin has some more advice for dealing with porch pirates. You should begin by tracking your package; if your package is marked as delivered, but you never found it where you were supposed to, it may have been stolen.
If that’s the case, contact your neighbors to see if they’ve seen it or have held on to it for you. Even if they haven’t taken it in for you, they may have seen what happened to it.
If your packages have been stolen, you should inquire if the seller or courier have any protections for customers and attempt to file a claim with them.
It may also be useful to only have in-person delivery or using a lockbox for deliveries. You should also insure your packages and have cameras around your home and perhaps you’ll be able to catch the thieves just like OP did!
The post collected 5.5k upvotes in a day and more than 200 comments. The commenters celebrated OP’s achievements and shared thieving neighbor stories of their own, which you should also do in the comments!
The commenters celebrated the poster's skills and wits and shared stories of their own porch pirate encounters
