414
submitted 4 months ago by girlfreddy@lemmy.ca to c/news@lemmy.world

A Southern California woman fed up with her packages getting stolen out of her post office box sent an Apple AirTag to the address and cleverly tracked down the suspected thief, police said.

The woman had had several items stolen from her mailbox at the Los Alamos Post Office already when she thought of the idea, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday. Apple’s $29 AirTags have become popular items since their 2021 release, helping users keep tabs on the location of anything from their lost keys to wallets and luggage.

On Monday morning, sheriff’s deputies were called to the post office where the woman told officials her mail had been stolen again — including the package with the AirTag.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] DaddleDew@lemmy.world 154 points 4 months ago

I'm just glad they did something about it.

Some police departments won't even be bothered to do anything about petty theft even if you give them a name, picture and address of the perpetrator.

[-] khannie@lemmy.world 43 points 4 months ago

Isn't interference with mail a fairly hefty offense over there?

[-] Someonelol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 69 points 4 months ago

Yeah it's a federal offense. That said cops can be lazy as shit and usually won't bother to help unless you're someone who's important to them.

[-] drcobaltjedi@programming.dev 24 points 4 months ago

USPS does NOT fuck around with mail crimes. Reporting it to them means they'll bring the hammer down.

[-] scottmeme@sh.itjust.works 11 points 4 months ago

Yep I had a USPS worker sign on a signature required package, had it on video.

Pretty sure he was fired because he fucked around and found out on a package I specifically requested to be signed required.

[-] IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world 15 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

If it’s US Mail then contact the US Postal Inspection Service. They’re federal law enforcement specifically for the USPS, and they don’t fuck around.

[-] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 13 points 4 months ago

Sure, maybe they don’t fuck around, but they also aren’t funded so they don’t do jack shit for you. Thanks DeJoy and Republicans.

[-] Ashelyn@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 4 months ago

Local police also aren't generally the best to contact over federal offenses. If it's not immediately actionable, they tend to lose interest and just shove the paperwork onto the "when we get around to it" pile

[-] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 13 points 4 months ago

Came to say exactly this. Lots of articles about police doing fuckall when trackers show the location of stolen property.

[-] IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago

In cases like this also contact the US Postal Inspection Service. They won’t take kindly to stolen mail, especially if it’s stolen right out of a US Post Office.

[-] PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago

especially if it’s stolen right out of a US Post Office.

For those who aren't aware, your mailbox is considered property of the USPS for exactly this reason. Only the people who receive mail there (and the USPS) are allowed to use it.

[-] ShepherdPie@midwest.social 1 points 4 months ago

I've also seen the opposite where they'll raid the wrong house because the tracker isn't as accurate as it needs to be in some cases. Police seem to always take things to the extremes rather than taking a more measured approach.

[-] PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago

In regards to mail theft, that's usually because it's outside of their purview; The USPS has its own dedicated police force that you should contact instead. If any part of your shipment was run through USPS, (it probably was, because FedEx and UPS both contract out a bunch of stuff to USPS), then they'll investigate it as if it had been stolen directly from the USPS. And those investigators do not fuck around. Calling your local cops will be met with apathy, because there's an entire federal department that could be dealing with it instead.

this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2024
414 points (99.3% liked)

News

23649 readers
2400 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS