what should i do to the person who steals my newspaper every morning?

Question

recently i've been getting the newspaper delivered to my house, but by delivered i mean "abandoned on the footpath outside". consequently, some jerk feels it's perfectly fine to steal it before they go to work (since my weekend papers are delivered quite faithfully).

after christmas i plan to wake up early & catch them in the act. what exactly do you think i should do? (keep in mind i'm about 5"5', female & probably not capable of wrestling them to the ground in order to salvage my newspaper!)

to the 5th answer: i appreciate that the simplest answer is often the best, but they deliver papers by car so they just toss them out the window. also, because of my house particularly, it's impossible to have it delivered right on my door.

Answer 1

OK, this exact same thing happened to me. My next door neighbor would lift my Sunday paper. I have "weekend" delivery so I only get papers on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. One day. my Sunday paper was missing. It is delivered at about 0500 on weekdays and 0600 on Sunday. I usualy get up at 6, when I am here, and get the newspaper and mail from the last few days when I was absent. So, I called about a missed delivery and the manager dropped off a paper a few hours later. NO problem, or so I thought. The next week, the same, Sunday was missed, again. I called and again, got a paper later in the day. The carier called me and confirmed he had delivered the papers. I never suspected the carrier of skipping me on purpose. I knew him, and he was a respectable guy. If he said he delivered the paper, I believed he did. Now what do I do? I decided to sit outside (it was summer and comfortable on the front porch before the sun came up.). I saw my neighbor pick up the paper and I walked down the driveway and confronted him. He claimed he was going to put the paper on my porch since rain was likely. I gave him the benefit of the doubt. A few weeks went by with no problem and then it happened again, no Sunday paper, and I called and a few hours later the manager delivered a paper. I again confronted my neighbor when I next saw him and he denied being involved. OK, so now what? Video. I set up a video camera and a VCR to record outside a bedroom window which overlooked the driveway, where the paper was delivered. I taped starting at 0400 each day my paper was delivered. I saw interesting things, like the high school kids littering, throwing water bottles into front yards of the properties in view of the camera. And the big one, caught my neighbor taking my Sunday paper. I used my computer and printed out pictues captured from the video and confronted him yet again. investigate a web cam and such. Since I did this and I had evidence of him committing an act of theft, he backed down and has not done this again that I am aware of. Be assertive in this matter. Stand up for your rights.

It does NOT matter that you are female, that you are 5'5". I am male and 6'1". You are a person being wronged under the law and it is up to you to assert your rights under the law. USE the law. That is why laws are there in the first place. The thing is, you need hard evidence in addition to your word, as your word alone carries little weight in a court. Get a video as I did. Get a witness or better, several witnesses, in addition to a video of the theft. And then, be not afraid to take this guy to court.

Is is bad form to use a sledgehammer on a thumbtack, so approach the guy with your hard evidence first and if he does not respond then pull out the big gun via the court.

Be reasonable. There may very well be a valid reason for his behaviour. Case on point, firewood in my backyard. I supplement my electric house heat with a woodstove and I have several cords of seasoned, split, wood ready for my stove along a fence in my backyard. Last winter, I found a neighbor was taking firewood from the several cords I have in my backyard. I use a woodstove to supplement my heat in the winter. It turned out he was recently unemployed and needed the wood to keep his house warm after his electricity was cut off because he could not pay his bills. If he had asked me, I would have gladly given him the firewood he needed. I have more on hand than I need for a singoe winter. The problem is he had not asked me, which meant he committed an act of theft. I ended up supplying him and his family with firewood for the rest of the winter. After all, I had several cords of seasoned wood and I was likely only to use a small portion for myself. The point is this, maybe this guy is unemployed, on hard times and is looking for work via the want ads. Not everything is at it seems to be, as it was with my neighbor, unemployed, looking for work, and doing what he needed to do keep his family warm. I can forgive a transgression if I know the reason why it was done. Stealing to feed your family is wrong, but it is forgivable.

So, why is this guy taking yor paper? Can you forgive this transgression if you know why he did this? If so, be tolerant. If not, go to court with hard evidence of theft.

Answer 2

Just erase the hateful messages from ur answering machine and forget. There is nothing so important in any newspaper that u should worry about its loss, unless u r worried about the possibility of theft from ur place, for which u should take precautions. Do not bother much about these and move on. Good Luck.

Answer 3

well, if it were me, I would get some chemicals that burn the skin, but not paper. coat the paper with the stuff, and watch in sadistic glee as the jerk's arm gets eaten up by acid....wah ha ha! Or a plastic dart gun with crazy glue. Or a tazer. Oh! Get a really mean weasle on a leash and train it to attack genitals. That's all I got.....good luck.

Answer 4

GOT a Video camera? Or even a digital camera video. Catch them in the act and report to the cops!

You can always report to the police and see if they can hide somewhere at a certain time to catch this person. That is if the person doesn't see them first.

Answer 5

I'd call the paper, and demand my money back for "undelivered papers".

OR when you catch the person in the act, present them with a bill for all the papers you paid for. if they don't pay you....sue them in small claims court and file a police report for theft.
video or a pic would help in identifying the thief.

Answer 6

Borrow a Rottweiler - or - take a newspaper outside, open it up, and dump a laser toner cartridge into it. Then very carefully close it back up and place it outside for him. When he opens it, the mess will be unbelievable - and very hard to clean up.

Answer 7

If you had a doormat at your front door and if not get one. After that ask the paperboy to put your newspapers under the doormat. If that still doesn't work videotape him/her doing it when he/she doesn't notice. Send that video to the police...I really hope it helps because I understand how you feel...

Answer 8

I would just report it to the newspaper- the carrier's fault for not putting it by the door... Whatever else you do, just look out for something that'll get you arrested... now that'd be worse than missing newspapers...

Answer 9

Be proud because some one in our world are reading morning newspapers.

Answer 10

get a mail box with a funnel in which the mail man can toss the papers.