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Comment by move-on-by | Hacker News Reader

> You are dealing with people who have no qualms stealing, it's not too crazy to expect other rash and illegal acts from them.

In more then one instance the thief opened the package at their house. So its fair to say he knows where they live too. Also, very clear HD video of their faces and vehicles. And there is no way all the glitter is going to get cleaned up - so more evidence of who they are. And home security cameras with more images of them. Not to say these idiots are smart enough to let things be at this point - but if they do retaliate, there is a very high chance they would be caught.

As for your comments about liability. Yeah, that sounds entirely plausible.

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Sadly, a video of a random figure with face obscured throwing a rock through your car window isn't going to get the police involved. Even with a GPS location of someone you pranked with a package, if there's no evidence directly tying the two incidents, the police aren't going to waste resources doing CSI on it. They'll just write you a police report so you can get your insurance paid.

Disturbingly, the accidental message of this glitterbomb booby-trap video is that you will probably not face legal consequences for stealing packages from peoples' property in broad daylight, so even the best security cameras are effectively useless.

That was my takeaway from this. It just gives the package thieves more reason to do it because, even if they do get caught on video, there's nothing that's going to be done about it.

Well, if someone goes and grabs 10 packages, and they have 15 random things, 14 of those won't be worth selling for $. If I think about the last 10 things I've ordered, and my thinking of my last garage sale. Nothing was really that valuable that there would be an easy sell.

I would expect the fact that most packages are of low value to increase theft, not discourage it. Lower-value packages carry even less chance of repercussions, and incentivize thieves to steal even more packages to make sure their effort is worthwhile.

Just really difficult (time consuming) to convert a pack of dog bones, a cheap bike light and a random tshirt (last 3 things i've ordered) into $. I think most of those items would just get tossed if they aren't of immediate use.

One thing I hadn't thought of though, is that these items might just be accumulating in someone's horde. Filling up some house or rental storage.

Until they finally do it in Texas or Florida, and get shot to death.

I think people in TX and FL would have a hard time defending themselves with Stand Your Ground because a central part of that defense is proving that your only other option would be retreat. An unarmed package thief pretty much negates that as a defense.

This isn't something new... After having property stolen a few times in the US it's apparent that the police are not there to assist with petty crime _at all_. Even when there's video footage/evidence to be reviewed they can't/won't be bothered and will likely just send a LEO out to fill out a police report for the formalities.

The police are a business and if there's not money to be had (traffic citations, parking tickets, etc.), or violent crime happening, you are the lowest possible priority. Source: personal experience + have worked with a couple of police depts many years back (not as a LEO). The only exception here is if you're a reasonable sized business - they tend to take cases like retail/corporate break-in seriously.

TLDR: Agree. People wouldn't do this if there were a real legal cost.

> The police are a business

This is the problem.

I don't want to agree with you. But I'm also reminded of the policy to seize cash without pressing charges. [1]

[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/sessi...

Yep!

If you look into civil forfeiture it's a racket... and directly infringes on our rights. Even in cases where there is NO wrongdoing you usually have to go through lengthy processes in order to get your property back, and even then you're considered lucky to get the majority of it back (if at all).

Effectively you are guilty until proven innocent with stuff like this on the books. I just find it funny that the same people who yell about "freedom" and "liberty" in this country are the ones who glorify the police as if they can do no wrong.

Because it's something that happens to "other people".

You could even put this stuff inside of the glitter-dispenser: http://bernews.com/2010/04/police-tasers-anti-felon-confetti...

I was also thinking about this. Identifying glitter could be an interesting product, because it's so hard to get rid of all of it. ex, you could embed short DNA plasmid UUIDs in the plastic.

I think the id glitter already exists, or I have another one of those pesky memories from some alternate dimension / tv series / dream.

How long until we hear of a person who included a gps unit in their bait package, but instead of taking it to the police, went to the person's house with a gun. The police would get involved at that point, though I wonder if it would be hard for them to find the perpetrator since there wouldn't be any obvious link between the two individuals if they didn't know about the gps bait package.

There have already been a bunch of murders of both thieves and victims regarding the recovery of GPS-enabled phones and laptops.

Unless you're a career criminal who doesn't mind incidental murder charges, just write it off FFS.

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