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NY Times writer Jake Mooney contemplated his missing home-delivered NY Times, wondering the best way to smoke out the culprit. Short of a surveillance camera and a special invisible trap, there aren't many options, even when another neighbor puts up a sign demanding that the stealing stop (our experience is that signs only shame, but rarely get people to change their actions). This is something Gothamist has wondered about - the "See Something, Take Something" or "Don't Question, Just Take" attitude of most people. Sure, if it's a gently-read newspaper on an empty subway, it's for the taking, but when you're missing your NY Times magazine, do you really have to steal your neighbors? Thinking more about it, here are the other things neighbors have been known to steal:
- Magazines
- Packages (hello, dangers of the package room)
- Cable
- Wi-Fi
- Significant others
And two weird, less common things that neighbors have been known to steal are pets and electricity. Can you think of anything else?
Image from a previous post about using animals to sell the NY Times' home delivery service
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most people would agree: your outside doorway area is a public extension of your home, and in any friendly building you should feel safe temporarily stowing your snowy boots, wet umbrellas, etc.
that said, someone once stole my $3 street-umbrella i had open and drying in the hallway. it seemed more pathetic than annoying... i only hope it was a delivery guy who was sick of getting rained on.
Some years ago, my brother and I put a rat trap under a decoy paper (just as illustrated in the Times article, in fact!) around six one morning. We heard it snap around seven, and rushed to the door, only to see the elevator door closing, but no glimpse of the miscreant. Still, never happened again.
PS -- we didn't catch the thief in the trap, but I think the scare was enough...
People steal potted and planted flowers etc., for some reason. Perhaps they are going on a date and need a quick gift, like in the movies.
stealing wifi?, are you kidding me?
...all one has to do is activate encryption or turn on the filter
if your neighbor doesn't have that on, s/he probably doesn't mind
you can even report your missing/wet paper on the nytimes website.
the problem is the weekend. they make you put in which sections you got/didn't get.
If you have a large dog, the barking dissuades the stoop paper stealers.
Hey, if they don't pick up the Sunday Times by noon, I figure they don't want it that bad.
I saw a great short during the Rooftop Films season last summer, involving a guy who DID set up a surveillance operation documenting his Times-stealing neighbor. The footage was then edited together, and for the last scene he confronted the angry and surprised old man with his footage. My sides were in pain the next day after laughing at this one!