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Lot of assertions without citations in this thread. HN can do better. If you’ve never had something stolen before, let me flesh out your data point. The police

Lot of assertions without citations in this thread. HN can do better. If you’ve never had something stolen before, let me flesh out your data point. The police almost never investigate theft of private property—if they do, it’s when there’s serial theft in an area. That’s anywhere in the US, in any year. They’re only there as a notary of sorts for your claim to the insurance company. It’d be cool if police used the surveillance tech built into our products for our benefit, but that’s not how the world works. They’re not standing by for hot pursuit of your earbuds.

toss1 5y ago
Yup, can confirm. Had $20K++ worth of stuff stolen from my shop. Police were there only to take notes, file a report, and send me the report # for the insurance claim. the officer didn't even ask any interesting questions, and offered no hope when I suggested maybe they could check around come likely locations where it might be. He was just acting as a stenographer with a badge. I totally get that they are overwhelmed and have to prioritize.
- anfilt 5y ago
  20k is grand theft which is a felony. I am surprised they did not take it more seriously. I had 2000ish dollar bicycle stolen, the police where I live took it very serious because the value. They ended up arresting the guy. They also find dozens of other bicycles that were stolen and in various levels of being parted out from what I was told. Also note a tracker in a bike can definitely lead to it being recovered.
  - toss1 5y ago
    Yup, it was an industrial transformer, and a 0-hour racecar motor/transmission setup... no tracking devices on them though...
TameAntelope 5y ago
Once you take the emotional factor out of theft, it's basically solved by the concept of insurance. Just replace your things, and you should be mostly whole again.
- butwhywhyoh 5y ago
  Solved by insurance? We should normalize the idea of theft because some large entity will replace our goods whenever they are stolen? This seems like it sets up an incentive to steal, since "don't worry, it will be replaced for them by insurance anyways". Not to mention the emotional factor isn't the only factor by far. I don't know about you, but I'd prefer to have my car available to me on demand, rather than have to wait to make a claim with insurance and finding a replacement. Has nothing to do with my emotions.
  - TameAntelope 5y ago
    Yes, we should normalize not reacting violently to theft because items can be replaced by insurance. Theft is not a problem at the volume you're suggesting it is a problem. Most people don't have most of their things stolen most of the time, and AirTags have absolutely nothing to do with addressing the threat of theft. And yes, it absolutely has to do with your emotions; everything has to do with emotions, the entire concept of reacting unemotionally is literally not possible for a human being to successfully execute unless you have a severe mental disorder (you don't, I gather).
    - silisili 5y ago
      There's a lot to unpack in this back and forth. Violent reactions are really the only deterrent left to keep thieves at bay. If everyone was so laissez faire about it, well, I'd eventually expect my house to be emptied daily, and my insurance to cost about $30k a month. I get your point that theft isn't currently -that bad-, but realize that using that info to justify thievery just keeps compounding the problem.
      - 5y ago
kkielhofner 5y ago
As one anecdotal point (and I’ve referenced it here before) but my iPhone was once stolen. I tracked it with Find My and, once located, called the sheriffs department of the jurisdiction. Based on what they told me they sent two deputies to the house and politely (yet firmly) “requested” the phone back. It actually went exactly the way you would expect - we have probable cause to search the entire house for grand theft. Just give it back. I went to the Sherrifs department an hour later and picked it up. Good use of resources? Probably not. Faith in public servants for me? Absolutely. Hopefully a scary lesson learned for an offender or two on a path of criminality? I hope so.

toss1 5y ago

Yup, can confirm. Had $20K++ worth of stuff stolen from my shop. Police were there only to take notes, file a report, and send me the report # for the insurance claim. the officer didn't even ask any interesting questions, and offered no hope when I suggested maybe they could check around come likely locations where it might be. He was just acting as a stenographer with a badge. I totally get that they are overwhelmed and have to prioritize.

anfilt 5y ago
20k is grand theft which is a felony. I am surprised they did not take it more seriously. I had 2000ish dollar bicycle stolen, the police where I live took it very serious because the value. They ended up arresting the guy. They also find dozens of other bicycles that were stolen and in various levels of being parted out from what I was told. Also note a tracker in a bike can definitely lead to it being recovered.
- toss1 5y ago
  Yup, it was an industrial transformer, and a 0-hour racecar motor/transmission setup... no tracking devices on them though...

TameAntelope 5y ago

Once you take the emotional factor out of theft, it's basically solved by the concept of insurance. Just replace your things, and you should be mostly whole again.

butwhywhyoh 5y ago
Solved by insurance? We should normalize the idea of theft because some large entity will replace our goods whenever they are stolen? This seems like it sets up an incentive to steal, since "don't worry, it will be replaced for them by insurance anyways". Not to mention the emotional factor isn't the only factor by far. I don't know about you, but I'd prefer to have my car available to me on demand, rather than have to wait to make a claim with insurance and finding a replacement. Has nothing to do with my emotions.
- TameAntelope 5y ago
  Yes, we should normalize not reacting violently to theft because items can be replaced by insurance. Theft is not a problem at the volume you're suggesting it is a problem. Most people don't have most of their things stolen most of the time, and AirTags have absolutely nothing to do with addressing the threat of theft. And yes, it absolutely has to do with your emotions; everything has to do with emotions, the entire concept of reacting unemotionally is literally not possible for a human being to successfully execute unless you have a severe mental disorder (you don't, I gather).
  - silisili 5y ago
    There's a lot to unpack in this back and forth. Violent reactions are really the only deterrent left to keep thieves at bay. If everyone was so laissez faire about it, well, I'd eventually expect my house to be emptied daily, and my insurance to cost about $30k a month. I get your point that theft isn't currently -that bad-, but realize that using that info to justify thievery just keeps compounding the problem.
    - 5y ago

kkielhofner 5y ago

As one anecdotal point (and I’ve referenced it here before) but my iPhone was once stolen. I tracked it with Find My and, once located, called the sheriffs department of the jurisdiction. Based on what they told me they sent two deputies to the house and politely (yet firmly) “requested” the phone back. It actually went exactly the way you would expect - we have probable cause to search the entire house for grand theft. Just give it back. I went to the Sherrifs department an hour later and picked it up. Good use of resources? Probably not. Faith in public servants for me? Absolutely. Hopefully a scary lesson learned for an offender or two on a path of criminality? I hope so.