Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/01/05/503368.html
…
3 Likes
Next up, Tacoma man fined for illegal use of pyrotechnic device.
7 Likes
I can respect this. I have a hard time respecting those “pranksters” that put the bait bikes out there with the built in electric shock and stake it out with cameras and trigger the shock for maximum LULZ. In between those two things is my own personal “line”. Make of that what you will.
8 Likes
This goes back about 20 years ago: A business owner in LA got tired of break-ins, those via a spot (some sort of crawl space) above the main entryway to his store. So he rigged up a high voltage ‘trap’ above the entryway. The next break-in resulted in an electrocuted would-be thief. The owner was officially let off, but ordered to get rid of the trap.
6 Likes
You forgot to say, “I am concerned!”
What if the alleged thief was allergic to gunpowder? Or suffered from PTSD? Or had an acute fear of cameras? Or what if the shotgun shell turned out to be a grenade?
3 Likes
This is post several hundred dollars of surveillance equipment, so I suspect the lazy t-rex arm of the law led to this.
10 Likes
With the cameras that he has set up, why not just submit the video to the cops?
Added anecdote:
A family friend owned a business down the block from a bar. After the umpteenth time he had to replace his punched-in, wall-mounted mailbox, he dropped in a special feature: a 1" wood block with a set of 2" screws driven through it. While that mailbox ended up getting punched as well, it was left alone after that along with its curious brown stain. No one ever called the cops.
4 Likes
I think that video combined with a package tracker and dye pack would be enough to get the police to these people’s home and land a conviction. Not as fun though…
4 Likes
disturbing that the thieves seemed to have a good car and middle class appearance.
6 Likes
another reminder of why profiling is so f*cked up. being poor doesn’t make you a criminal, nor does being rich make you innocent, some of the biggest crooks in the USA are the wealthy heads of banks.
34 Likes
My father, tired of having a bashed in mailbox, made his own out of 1/4 inch thick, 6x6 square steel tubing.
No way to know if anybody tried to smash it ever since.
As an example of evolution and successful natural selection, that same mailbox was later a place where a spider hatched eggs, which was nightmarish enough to make my father not want to mess with the box anymore. I don’t honestly know what he does about mail these days…
9 Likes
no doubt. But this is why its more grievous to me. If you are secure an not in peril of home or hunger, its more grievous to me to steal. The 1% using influence to create an unfair playing field to rake in more earnings, these are truly the worst thieves. Somebody who is poor, desperate, without opportunity, I understand them trying to steal. A lady in a nice wool coat, and a recent model Subaru, no, I don’t get that. They are sick.
7 Likes
Or what if the whole house collapsed, killing everyone within? Will someone, please, think of the children?!?!?!?
5 Likes
My father did something similar - he welded one out of 1/4" plate steel, and cemented the post 3 ft in the ground. And welded railrod spikes onto the outside, to discourage the local teens from playing mailbox baseball.
The post office refused to deliver the mail until he removed the railroad spikes. This was in rural Alabama, where the mail was delivered by a postal worker in her own car, driving from the passenger seat.
2 Likes
I would have gone with a dye pack, but this works too.
Hopefully he sent the picture of the thief to the local police.
7 Likes
I definitely have more empathy for those stealing in order to eat or feed a family for sure.
5 Likes
In my experience, the poor are often the most reluctant to accept charity, and the worst thieves are generally also the richest. But that doesn’t jive with the demonization of the poor media outlets think will sell ads. They assume, perhaps not incorrectly, that the proles want someone to look down on, not a spotlight on the unethical behavior of the multimillionaire class of which they imagine themselves to be temporarily embarrassed members.
13 Likes
But, how did he get those cameras delivered?
4 Likes
its survival vs greed
1 Like
Huh? Survival? You did see the car the woman was driving. She seems to be surviving quite well. And I wouldn’t characterize not wanting your packages stolen as “greed”.
