Home Depot tracked a crime ring and found an unusual suspect (2023) | Hacker News Reader

Home Depot tracked a crime ring and found an unusual suspect (2023)

wsj.com

8 pointstlb8 comments

This is positive. I get the suspicion that a lot of retail theft and porch pirates are organized. This means that chasing after a few bad actors can make a huge difference. I always wondered why it was easy enough for someone like Mark Rober to setup a glitter bomb with GPS that followed the stolen packages to the person's home, but somehow these simple techniques aren't used more broadly by police. With AirTags I've even heard stories about people informing police the whereabouts of their stolen packages but police were unable to actually do anything about it for some reason.

Hopefully now the tide is shifting and police go after these theft rings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_TSR_v07m0

Police won’t act if they don’t think they can get a conviction

Chase an AirTag to someone’s house and all they have to do is say “oh, I don’t know what that is. Here, take it.” Can’t prove intent, can’t prove who actually took it, and now it’s returned so there is no damage.

And what’s the best case charge? Petty theft of a $100 Amazon delivery; misdemeanor.

The big box stores do the investigation. They have everything to lose. They have copious footage and compile evidence over months. They have legal resources.

Target is notorious for this. They’ll gather evidence across many stores and wait until the grand theft threshold has been crossed and then nail the thief with a felony. They have intent, tons of evidence, a pattern of behavior…

After the video was published, it was revealed that some of the recorded "theft" reactions were actually staged. According to Rober, he had asked friends to test the device and record reactions, but some of them had recruited other people to pretend to be thieves without his knowledge.

When this came to light, Rober apologized for not properly vetting all the footage and explained that 2 reaction shots had been staged without his knowledge. His later glitter bomb videos included more rigorous documentation and transparency.

Non-clickbait headline: "Florida pastor sells $3 million of Home Depot goods that he encouraged addicts to steal"

I really want to find out if Pastor Rob is a Joel Osteen follower

Okay but "Anointed Liquidator" is hilarious

Article should be tagged 2023

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