# Packages (UPS, etc) on door steps
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/packages-ups-etc-on-door-steps/787738
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [May 30, 2017, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/packages-ups-etc-on-door-steps/787738 "2017-05-30T21:49:50Z")
**Posts on this page:** 17
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2017, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/packages-ups-etc-on-door-steps/787738/21 "2017-05-31T13:19:16Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#):
>
> The point about not knowing what is in the box is a good one though. The packaging is usually very generic.
Unless you order from NewEgg. Then it comes in a box with “I probably have several hundred dollars worth of computer components inside!” branding on the outside.
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### Author:  [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2017, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/packages-ups-etc-on-door-steps/787738/22 "2017-05-31T13:33:53Z")
> [@2Bits](#):
>
> Why aren’t they stolen with regularity?
In my neighborhood they are.
It annoys me no end when I tell an on-line company to send items to my PO Box and they manage to dig up my street address and send it there anyway. Then I have to tell them it’s been stolen _just like I warned would happen_ and that’s why I pay for a PO Box, morons.
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### Author:  [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2017, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/packages-ups-etc-on-door-steps/787738/23 "2017-05-31T14:55:09Z")
Also, a package containing a UPS would be very heavy and difficult to steal.
What?
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### Author:  [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2017, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/packages-ups-etc-on-door-steps/787738/24 "2017-05-31T15:35:59Z")
REALLY big dogs. The UPS delivery folks know the dogs are safely contained. My neighbors aren’t so certain (The UPS driver only hears them - the neighbors have SEEN them, and don’t trust they won’t come through the window).
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### Author:  [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2017, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/packages-ups-etc-on-door-steps/787738/25 "2017-05-31T16:16:42Z")
I live in the boonies and my front porch isn’t easily visible from the street. However, deliveries don’t always end up on the porch - sometimes they’re left next to the garage door, fully visible to anyone looking down the driveway. But apparently we’re in an honest neighborhood. We’ve forgotten and left the garage wide open all night, and once we left a shed full of rather expensive tools open.
My sister who lives in Baltimore city, tho, is in a highly pilferable area. If she’s outside when something is being delivered to a neighbor, she’ll take it inside till they get home.
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### Author:  [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2017, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/packages-ups-etc-on-door-steps/787738/26 "2017-05-31T17:31:16Z")
I live in one of the nicest neighborhoods in Chicago, and packages disappear with regularity. I now use the “Amazon Locker” service whenever possible.
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### Author:  [@Randolph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Randolph)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2017, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/packages-ups-etc-on-door-steps/787738/27 "2017-05-31T19:18:57Z")
> [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](#):
>
> What’s in the box???
> [@Tranquilis](#):
>
> REALLY big dogs.
You know, I’m coming up with an idea for package theft deterrent…
(…and it’s not pretty heads.)
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### Author:  [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2017, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/packages-ups-etc-on-door-steps/787738/28 "2017-05-31T20:13:47Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#):
>
> Are you saying this is why _you_ don’t steal packages? Or just everyone else?
This is why petty crooks don’t steal them in broad daylight in front of everybody who might happen to be watching. I’d wager that the majority of thefts occurred at night, or in secluded areas, or where it wasn’t possible to observe the theft. Anybody walking away from a building with a package who isn’t (a) a known resident or (b) driving a UPS truck is likely to cause suspicion.
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### Author:  [@ReticulatingSplines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ReticulatingSplines)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2017, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/packages-ups-etc-on-door-steps/787738/29 "2017-05-31T20:41:43Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#):
>
> This is why petty crooks don’t steal them in broad daylight in front of everybody who might happen to be watching. I’d wager that the majority of thefts occurred at night, or in secluded areas, or where it wasn’t possible to observe the theft. Anybody walking away from a building with a package who isn’t (a) a known resident or (b) driving a UPS truck is likely to cause suspicion.
They do steal them in broad daylight. By nighttime, the packages are inside. Besides, during the day, parents are at work, kids are at school, and who is even going to happen to be watching the 5 seconds it takes to swipe a package?
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### Author:  [@Calatin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Calatin)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2017, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/packages-ups-etc-on-door-steps/787738/30 "2017-05-31T21:11:32Z")
Last year, there was a string of package “disappearances” in my apartment building.
The building’s message board had a few “did anyone accidentally take…” posts, so I stopped having things shipped to my place, seeing as how sometimes UPS / FedEx will leave the package on your doorstep, and my apartment is in a high-traffic area.
One day, I was home early, and I saw a package on someone’s doorstep. I went to the front office, told them it was there, and asked if I could bring it to the front office for them to safeguard, and they’d notify the resident.
They said that it was a great idea, but I was extremely nervous when I went back to the apartment in question, in fear that someone would mistake me for the thief rather than a good Samaritan.
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### Author:  [@Dinna\_Fash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinna_Fash)
#### Post date: [June 1, 2017, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/packages-ups-etc-on-door-steps/787738/31 "2017-06-01T00:49:48Z")
I had a package go missing off our doorstep in broad daylight. We have young people walking by our house to the store and I figure it was a crime of opportunity. Some teenage guy ended up with a My Generation doll from Target.
Fortunately, they sent another one at no charge.
On a somewhat related note (but not really), someone stole our dog’s tie out last week, so we bought another one two days later. The next day, the tie out was returned, tossed in the bushes. I’m more peeved now that’s it’s returned; if you need it that badly, just keep it, I don’t need two
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
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### Author:  [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)
#### Post date: [June 1, 2017, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/packages-ups-etc-on-door-steps/787738/32 "2017-06-01T01:08:11Z")
I have a sign on my door that says “UPS, FedEx, USPS, please leave packages!” or they take them to the office, and I have to be late for work the next day so I can get them. Never had anything stolen. I live in Indianapolis. In a not great, but not terrible part of town.
It’s next to the sign that says “I don’t want to convert to your religion. No matter what it is.” Which works with everyone but the Watchtower people. According to them, they aren’t trying to convert me to anything, they are just trying to give me information that could be beneficial to me. :dubious:
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [June 1, 2017, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/packages-ups-etc-on-door-steps/787738/33 "2017-06-01T01:09:17Z")
> [@somepumpkin](#):
>
> No one knows what’s in the box. It’s not worth a criminal record for a chance at 3x towel rods.
> …
> [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](#):
>
> What’s in the box???
> [@Little\_Nemo](#):
>
> Or a bobcat.
Would that be a bobcat that’s either dead or alive or both? Indeterminately so until the box is opened?
Yup, that’s it: Shrodinger’s Amazon delivery from xkcd via UPS.
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### Author:  [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)
#### Post date: [June 1, 2017, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/packages-ups-etc-on-door-steps/787738/34 "2017-06-01T02:37:28Z")
> [@2Bits](#):
>
> Why aren’t they stolen with regularity?
Depending on the neighborhood, they often are. UPS will not leave boxes at the houses on my side of the street. Being basically on a high foot traffic sidewalk (my front yard is 3 feet between the porch and sidewalk) you have almost no chance of a package still being there when you get home from work. If they can’t get it behind the scree door, you get a little card basically “call us and we’ll talk about it”. Some people in our county/city have gone so far as to rig cameras just for deliveries.
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### Author:  [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)
#### Post date: [June 1, 2017, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/packages-ups-etc-on-door-steps/787738/35 "2017-06-01T03:02:43Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#):
>
> Anybody walking away from a building with a package who isn’t (a) a known resident or (b) driving a UPS truck is likely to cause suspicion.
This was not my experience living in NYC at all. Most people couldn’t recognize everyone who lived in their building, and people just weren’t interested enough in random strangers to question someone who didn’t look way out of place like a bum, or someone in ragged clothes in a well-dressed area.
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [June 1, 2017, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/packages-ups-etc-on-door-steps/787738/36 "2017-06-01T03:25:47Z")
Exactly. In much of the country most people studiously ignore everything going on around them. If it isn’t their immediate personal concern, it doesn’t exist.
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### Author:  [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)
#### Post date: [June 1, 2017, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/packages-ups-etc-on-door-steps/787738/37 "2017-06-01T19:51:18Z")
> [@Randolph](#):
>
> You know, I’m coming up with an idea for package theft deterrent…
>
> (…and it’s not pretty heads.)
:eek: 😃
OK, now _THAT_ is funny.
🆒
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