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Comment by tareqak | Hacker News Reader

What would happen if I noticed a package not addressed to me on my porch, and I:

1) Took it inside?

2) Took it inside and called USPS/FedEx/UPS depending on the shipping label?

3) Took it into my car, and drove to a USPS/FedEx/UPS office depending on the label?

To add, I appreciate that there are efforts behind solving this problem. I'm living in an apartment, and I've had to deal with missing packages as well. I'd personally rather have legitimate packages have trackers, and then return or drop-off the tracker once I receive the package successfully. I understand the price would be high given the scale of my ask.

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You live there. You're allowed to remove items from your own porch. I think the scenarios would be:

1) Cops show up and and say, "Hey, that was a bait package. Can we get it back?"

2) Same as 1), plus USPS/FedEx/UPS would be unable to locate the tracking number.

3) Cops pull you over, thinking you're a porch pirate. You tell them where you live, and they regret the error, and ask for their bait package back.

(But these scenarios probably wouldn't happen in the first place. I assume that the chosen bait locations were done with the knowledge of the residents.)

4) Cops arrest and charge you with theft over $10000 (the tracker is overpriced), interfering with an investigation, and resisting arrest. You make a deal and plead guilty to resisting arrest in exchange for having the other charges dropped.

It could happen but is so unlikely as to be not worth considering.

In the US everything is possible coming from a cop. Like being pulled over because you're black, having your car searched because it "smells of cannabis", and once nothing is found, they decide to seize $150,000 of your cash through civil forfeiture because you didn't blink the turning light long enough and one of the bills was a counterfeit $20. [0]

[0]https://theworldnews.net/us-news/celebrity-dj-says-deputies-...

Not sure what you're getting at. Are you suggesting that the police would leave bait packages at random houses without the informed consent of the occupants? And then arrest them if they picked them up? That would be nuts, but there's no suggestion of anything like that in the article.

You could have informed consent of some of the occupants and not all e.g. tenants, roommates. I also assume they have informed consent, but there was no explicit mention of this consent in the article.

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