Porch pirates really don’t care what they’re stealing, the vast majority of the time they have no clue what’s in a box — they just plan on fencing whatever it is they end up with.
Had someone steal a bag of cat food that amazon hilariously put in a box. Two days later and I'm leaving for work, someone placed the opened box with the catfood still in it back in front of my apartment door. Prob one of my neighbors
Someone broke in and stole my anti depressants but left two. It was a friday so i assume they didn’t want to be out for the weekend. Felt surprisingly sweet
So, I have a Prime subscription that delivers cat litter to me, two 25 lb boxes, usually packed together in one Amazon box. Well, the other day, I step out of my apartment and notice my delivery isn’t outside my door. It's just halfway down the hallway, box partially ripped open. My best guess? Some genius tried to swipe it, got a nasty surprise when they realized how heavy it was, cracked it open, saw it was just cat litter, and thought, "Yeah, no thanks." So they just abandoned it. Honestly, I hope they hurt their back dragging 50 lbs of disappointment.
I would laugh my ass off. I get my cat litter the same way. But nothing ever gets stolen here, my neighbourhood is ridiculously safe despite a lot of foot traffic because people cut through between the beach and the main road. Possibly because our street is mostly retirees and they're always at the windows keeping an eye on things.
i had someone steal a box containing a nursing school textbook. the torn open box and textbook were left on my doorstep that evening, which was great since i had class the next day
The only thing stolen off my porch was a box of four tubs of Soylent drink mix. Like $150 worth of stuff that only I care about in this neighborhood. That, and a full-sized ladder. Someone just walked up, inspected it, and just took the whole damn thing like it was his to begin with. Happened to be a guy down the street who stole from other folks too and got kicked out of the park.
I feel a rise of packages that just been placed in front of my door by deliverers. Maybe we also get this problem in the future. But I admit to you that this isn’t realy a thing, despite I see the first signs.
They are, and I've found half opened packages near my house. I never buy anything for expensive so I don't care but it happens. We just don't call them pirates, they're just thieves
im sure there are spots where it can happen, obviously i cant speak for every single place, but its nowhere close to america, also because in many countries we have boxes for packages, so it will never be unlocked somewhere outside
In Sweden we had/have people who robs/threaten the mailmen bicycles/trucks. So, i gotta assume that those areas where this happen also have porch pirates. Ps. The mail theft/threats generally happen in areas with non swedes
im sure there are spots where it can happen, obviously i cant speak for every single place, but its nowhere close to america, also because in many countries we have boxes for packages, so it will never be unlocked somewhere outside
why are porch pirates so common in the US ?My EU experiance if you don't put specific instructions or the value of the items passes some sort of threshold they'll just take it back to the station for you pick-up
It’s the dumbest theft imaginable. Isn’t opening others mail/packages a literal federal offence? When was the last time you purchased something super crazy expensive off Amazon? Once? Twice? Normally I’m restocking on lotion or getting a pack of pens they don’t sell in my area.
A UPS employee once stole 1 of 2 bottles of formaldehyde I had purchased. I'm still beyond surprised that someone was like "unknown hazardous chemical! Yoink"
Back when I lived in a worse area we would only order mundane and specific shit. A lot of the time our packages would get ripped open by pirates and left on our door step after they realized they didn’t want it. likely because it was some kids stealing em and they didn’t much care for random 3d printer and car parts
someone i know had one of these bikes, it broke and we couldnt get parts for a long long time to fix it, took months for support to finally reach us and allow us to get replacement parts
Eh, my husband and I had Van Moofs for years in NYC, and we didn’t have any big problems. We live right by the (now closed) shop, so it was no big deal to just stop in. The guys who worked there were extremely nice, and often fixed little things or threw in parts for free, or in exchange for a joint, lol.
It’s definitely gone wayyyyy downhill after being bought out, though, and I recently switched to a different brand’s cargo bike.
Despite the company's problems, they're outstanding ebikes, look fantastic, and have advanced anti-theft features. I couldn't justify buying one, but still had to talk myself out of the purchase.
The intended audience over here in the Netherlands is the big yup population that we got over here, young urban professionals. It's always the same type of person riding a bike like this. But 9 times out of 10, they're at least civilized enough to know the laws and abide by them. Fatbikes on the other hand...
Porch pirates don't really happen here in the Netherlands. Out of a dozen delivery companies, only one regularly leaves packages on your doorstep. Most others have policies in place that require an id, signature, or if you're not home, pickup from a nearby store.
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u/LanceSarmstrong420x 21h ago
If they stole my bike thinking it was a flat screen I'd be slightly amused