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Comment by dachworker | Hacker News Reader

I never lived in a country where the delivery guy just leaves your shit out in the open. Why is this common in the US, when in most "safe" EU countries, people would never trust such a practice? Seems like an anti-consumer practice enforced by industry on the consumer.

No, packages should not be stolen from people's porch. But realistically, it's very hard to stop this crime of opportunity.

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It depends where you live. I get stuff left by my door or garage or in the mailbox all the time and I would absolutely hate it if signatures were always required or if I had to go somewhere to pick up a package multiple times a week.

I have rarely had things misdelivered and the neighbor has gotten it to me. It's just not a problem in a lot of places in the US.

This appears to be stolen from a PO Box which is secured with a lock. The thieves defeated this.

Thanks, should have read the article. I stand corrected.

Many apartment complexes do have packages delivered to USPS lockboxes attached to the mailboxes or increasingly Amazon Lockers.

In other cases delivery people can open an exterior door to access a hallway or ante-room that connects to individual residences and contains mailboxes and lockers. Or they might just leave the package there. Theft by a neighbor in the same building is vanishingly uncommon.

But for larger items (or if delivery is to a house), it's common to just leave them at your door or on the porch (or just inside the outer door if possible). In some places this might be a theft risk (porch piracy), but in most it's just not.

If you're worried, just request verified delivery so you have to sign for it. Today we have informed delivery services so you get alerted that a package is coming your way and can request that it be signed for yourself, even if you don't know who sent it.

in this case, it was stolen from her post office box, a small locker with a key. and fwiw, I've never had a package stolen, but we also live in a good area, and the packages are out in the open. Sometimes they will be set behind a railing. We came home from a vacation once to like 15 packages piled up

This is nonsense. I mean, I WFH now but when I worked outside the home there was a pattern of

1) UPS guy tries to deliver package 2) nobody is home, because it is 1PM 3) I have to go to UPS distribution center to pick it up

Finally I got them to just leave the package in the first place, but it took awhile.

Nobody steals packages off the porch, because I don't live in a shithole.

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