{"id":195400,"date":"2025-10-01T19:16:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T19:16:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/195400\/"},"modified":"2025-10-01T19:16:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T19:16:17","slug":"our-neighbors-keep-stealing-our-packages-theyre-strangely-targeting-a-specific-item","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/195400\/","title":{"rendered":"Our neighbors keep stealing our packages. They’re strangely targeting a specific item."},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Prudence is Slate\u2019s advice column.\u00a0Submit questions here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Dear Prudence,<\/p>\n

We\u2019re caught in a weird neighbor\/package theft situation.<\/p>\n

My husband and I disagree on whether to somehow confront them (my approach) or go nuclear and talk to the police (his approach). We live in a duplex. Our neighbor, who owns the other half, rents it to tenants. Currently, a 50-something couple, \u201cJames\u201d and \u201cHelen,\u201d rent it. We tried to get to know them when they moved in, but they brushed us off, so we left them alone. It\u2019s been fine \u2026 until now.<\/p>\n

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The Neighbor Kids Keep Trespassing on Our Property. Their Parents\u2019 Response Is Unhinged.
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My husband\u2019s elderly mom lives with us, and this year, she started needing specialty incontinence underwear. They\u2019re not the drugstore type, so to get the best price, we order online from a medical retailer. After our third package, any that came when we weren\u2019t home disappeared. Nothing else we order online ever gets stolen. My husband recently got a free Ring camera through work, and we figured maybe it could give us answers. We watched the video, and it\u2019s James and Helen! Even when there are other, more expensive-looking packages on the porch, they only steal these ones. We\u2019re baffled and angry, but disagree on how to deal with this. Package theft is small, but we also need these packages, and we\u2019re not made of money. We live next door! It\u2019s such antisocial behavior.<\/p>\n

\u2014The Porch Pirates Are Inside the House<\/p>\n

Dear Porch Pirates,<\/p>\n

Write them a note\u2014or go talk to them in person so they don\u2019t have time to come up with a cover story\u2014and say this: \u201cHi neighbors. I know we haven\u2019t talked much, but we\u2019ve solved a mystery in the building, and it involves you and mailroom confusion. Our packages from a specialty pharmacy were found missing, and we knew they weren\u2019t the kind of thing anyone would want to steal, so we were so confused and reviewed the footage. It looks like you took them by mistake. It must be because you get medical shipments from the same place. You probably haven\u2019t opened the boxes yet, or maybe you did and they were the same as items you use, so you didn\u2019t notice! So if you open up any incontinence underwear, please let us know or double-check the addresses.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Greg Lavallee
\n My Wife\u2019s Halloween Candy Policy Makes Me See Red. But This Year, I Have a Plan.
\n Read More\n <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

This is all a lie to give them cover to return the goods without getting defensive or admitting guilt, but also to let them know they\u2019re being watched so they won\u2019t snatch the next delivery.<\/p>\n

Classic Prudie<\/p>\n

My daughter has spent most of her 20s trying to find her feet\u2014between careers and relationships. My sons both knew what they wanted since they were little. Naturally, the family ribs each other so there was some light teasing about her excitement over her new job. She left early saying she was feeling bad. When I later called her, she blew up\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Get advice on manners and morals in your inbox three times a week.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dear Prudence is Slate\u2019s advice column.\u00a0Submit questions here. Dear Prudence, We\u2019re caught in a weird neighbor\/package theft situation.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195401,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[3005,11463,79,37512,6843],"class_list":{"0":"post-195400","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-advice","9":"tag-dear-prudence","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-single-q","12":"tag-slate-plus"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195400\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}