Front porch package security

Just figured I would share someone using a Wyze camera I think V2 in …uummm… deter possible people that remove packages without permission from a front porch. I didn’t see it posted anywhere. If it’s a double please remove.

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He mumbles something about owing his neighbor(s) a bottle of wine. After all that needless racket I don’t think one will cover it.

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I have a simple solution to the problem. Everything gets delivered to work where there is always someone there and both FedEx and UPS are at the shop every day anyway. I did during the pandemic while I was working from home most of the time have to remember to have some things come to the house, but I have a V2 pointed at my front porch that I watched via RTSP and BlueIris.

This is fun and cool, but the reason this won’t really work or make a difference is because it doesn’t do much to deter the initial crime. Everything happens only AFTER the crime has occurred and the person is already running away. Basically it just makes them run faster like they were already going to do anyway. Also, porch pirating is usually a crime of opportunity and rarely does the same package thief strike the same place multiple times (sure it happens, but it’s statistically rare), thus future deterrence of a thief is also pointless…though it might deter your neighbors from wanting to visit. :slight_smile:

It would be much better to simply have some kind of warning about security recording, etc. Also, he could just put out a sign to delivery people to place the packages on the left side of the porch, rather than at the foot of the door so it’s not easily visible from the road/sidewalk. Those would actually help against opportunists and be better prevention.

If you had a higher confidence ratio of it’s effectiveness, you could make it spray dye on the person, like banks do to bank robbers, that way they are identifiable by authorities when you report the theft, but regardless of whether there should be or not, legally there are always liability questions involved. [Disclaimer: IANAL] We like to believe that we can legally do anything we want to a trespasser to “protect our property or selves,” and this can vary a little by state, but from a strict legal standpoint, that is not necessarily completely accurate. Typically the castle doctrine relies on something like you seeing a weapon or a deadly threat against you…there are many cases where someone’s mere presence (trespassing) and even intrusion into your home, were found not to be sufficient reason to constitute a presumption of immediate fear of imminent death or great bodily harm. Also, the use of the word presumption always means there is a word that follows it: REBUTTABLE: if the prosecutor can introduce evidence to overcome that presumption, then you could be held liable for anything you do the person and you can get felony charges and prison time for something the other person only did to deserve a misdemeanor, a small fine and at worst a very short stay in jail.

So…potentially getting felony assault charges (or other) to feel good about revenge on a misdemeanor theft sounds a little disproportionate to me. Again, I am not claiming it is RIGHT or what should happen or if you should be able to attack the thief or not, just what the reality of the actual legal risks are and that you should talk to a lawyer in your area before really trying to do something “fun” like this (the law is pretty unforgiving for misunderstanding what’s allowed or not and blindly believing what the culture simply believes should be allowed). :wink:

Having that out of the way, Wyze’s upcoming “Wyze Anything Recognition” will make it possible to do this without all the complicated programming this guy had to figure out with custom firmware. Anybody could use Wyze rules to do most of this! So many fun possibilities! I might set it up to do this to mess with my brothers’ facial recognition when they come to visit to use my pool. :rofl: