8 ms·

Road with a guy to visit a friend in a gated community. We didn't know the access code for the gate but the guy I was with is an Amazon delivery driver. "Let's

Road with a guy to visit a friend in a gated community. We didn't know the access code for the gate but the guy I was with is an Amazon delivery driver. "Let's see if I can't get us in," he said. He got out of the car, walked over to the access panel and looked on top, bottom and sides. Then he punched in some numbers and the gate opened. Turns out, so many people in gated communities and apartment complexes order things from Amazon, and other delivery services, and want front door delivery but don't give them any way to get in. Eventually, some frustrated driver who gets the code will write it on the side of the access panel to help everyone out. "Apartments are awful," he said. "College campuses are the bane of our existence. You would think that college kids would be smart about these things but they are the absolute worst."

_fat_santa 2y ago
My parents live in a very upscale country club community down in Florida and their gate security is laughable. They assign every household a 4 digit code to enter the community. Given how many homes are in this community, entering any 4 digit code > 1000 and < 2000 will work.
- jimt1234 2y ago
  My girlfriend lives in an upscale, gated community. Her HOA has done the exact opposite. They change the gate code weekly as way to "protect" themselves from this situation. However, it's kinda had the opposite effect - tailgating has become totally acceptable, even the norm, as people can't keep up with the gate code changes. Amazon drivers usually just sit outside for a minute or two, then tailgate into the neighborhood.
  - reaperman 2y ago
    The only gated community / apartment complex's I've ever seen where that was not normal are a subset of the ones that have an on-duty guard - specifically the subset with guards who recognize all the occupants and take the information of anyone they don't recognize.
    - jimt1234 2y ago
      Her community is not guard-gated, but it's extremely snooty/snobby. A number of years ago, before the weekly gate-code changes, the HOA started doing annual code changes on Halloween. Why Halloween, you might ask? Because the service staff of the community (landscapers, house cleaners, etc.) had the audacity to bring their children/grand-children to the neighborhood to trick-or-treat. Residents felt the service staff was just trying to guilt them into giving candy. Keep in mind, all these residents are multi-millionaires, mostly retirees, and they were bitching about having to spend 5 bucks in candy to make children happy.
      - doubled112 2y ago
        Isn’t that usually how the rich stay rich? Does this really seem too surprising? In my experience, and I’m generalizing a lot, the less people have the more generous they tend to be.
        fragmede 2y ago
        It's an over generalization. The other way the story goes is that the big house with the long driveway in my neighborhood is the one that gave out king sized candy bars on Halloween.
      - AStonesThrow 2y ago
        Considering the origin of trick-or-treating and Halloween customs, that carefree night of fun for kids sounds more like a protection racket.
  - bell-cot 2y ago
    They're doing a great job of "protecting" themselves from feeling anxious about Bad Things somehow happening. For an all-too-large fraction of humanity, that's the "protection" which actually matters.
    - chairmansteve 2y ago
      And of course, the gated communities have 6 ft high walls that any 8 yr old could climb over.
  - zbrozek 2y ago
    My townhouse HOA decided it was totally worth money to replace our fob system with a system that's deliberately incompatible with Homelink. They claimed without evidence that used car sales were a severe security risk. Nevermind that you can wave any conductor under the gate to trigger the egress wire loop sensor, or just wait a minute or two for someone else to go through. From 6AM to 10PM the other gate is simply open, too. Now I have to pay more for crappier fobs with worse range. It's deeply disappointing.
wildzzz 2y ago
There's a door at work I regularly need to access. It used to be used for another purpose but now is just an extension of the work area. It's got a badge reader and simplex lock but I can't get badge access because I don't actually belong to that work area yet I'm there everyday anyway. However, someone wrote the simplex lock code on a sign in very small numbers for this exact purpose. Other simplex locks in the building use the default code you can find online. The whole building is secure so you'd never be able to walk up to these doors without proper credentials, they are mostly just there to keep out the curious or someone looking to borrow tools that they shouldnt.
- atlanticaccent 2y ago
  > The whole building is secure Given what you just said and the article you're commenting under, are you sure?
  - organsnyder 2y ago
    Anyone wearing a maintenance uniform and carrying a step-ladder could surely find a way in via an overly helpful victim.
    - EvanAnderson 2y ago
      Look like you belong and act confident and you can get nearly anywhere. Props help-- wear a high-vis vest and a hard hat, carry a tablet / folio / clipboard around an office, etc. Confidence is the key, though.
      - organsnyder 2y ago
        You also have to fit a certain expected demographic.
        EvanAnderson 2y ago
        Sadly, yes-- that's true. It's a game of playing to stereotypes, for sure.
sidewndr46 2y ago
It's far simpler than that. Ever gated community I've ever visited, press any digit 4 times. You're in. The only exception is community with a security guard. The guy obviously isn't just going to let some guy not on the guest list in
- adamanonymous 2y ago
  Gated communities around me have 2 lanes, one with a sensor activated gate for residents and a guest lane next to the guard hut If it's busy and you pull up in a nice enough car and just wait in front of the sensor gate looking annoyed, the guard will eventually just let you in
- renata 2y ago
  911 or 9911 is usually a good shot too.
AutistiCoder 2y ago
I was under the impression that delivery drivers had a book or something with these codes. Like, the HOA just like calls the delivery companies and says "hey, here's a code to get in"
- DANmode 2y ago
  Missed the stories about these guys shitting in the backs of the trucks and vans for lack of time to do their jobs, eh?!
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - zamadatix 2y ago
    A route book or note is already an assumption drivers need to have some method to quickly get through gates. Where it missed out was there are even more efficient solutions to the problem. That's because of not knowing all of the options, not because of assuming drivers just have a lot of spare time to kill so must like the slower and more complicated option.
    - DANmode 2y ago
      This is often left to USPS, UPS, and DHL drivers to figure out on their own. You folks are living in a fantasy land. No wonder it's considered socially acceptable to order multiple Amazon deliveries in a week....
WalterBright 2y ago
I bet you could examine the keypad for wear. The worn keys (or the shiny ones) are the ones for the code. In the days before cell phones, a burglar alarm would dial the alarm company. The phone company likes to install the phone box on the outside of the building. The alarm is defeated by an axe to the cable going in the box. I had a fight with the phone company at my house, as I wanted the box on the inside rather than the outside. They finally agreed on the condition that I maintain the wire to the box. These days, of course, the alarms use wifi or a cell phone to call the alarm company.
- bell-cot 2y ago
  > These days, of course, the alarms use... And the crooks use RF jammers instead of axes.
  - EGreg 2y ago
    These days, alarms use quantum entanglement. Beat that :)
    - WalterBright 2y ago
      I set the Fires of Gondor.
  - miki123211 2y ago
    There's enough bandwidth to go around nowadays that alarms can send regular keepalives (which doesn't mean all of them do). If the keepalives stop coming without a proper disarm signal, a fault is raised. Some old alarms had a weaker version of this, where they would dial the security company whenever the door was opened, and then again when the alarm was disarmed. If the second call didn't come in time, the company would instantly know that something was up. This protected against thieves that would enter the house and smash the alarm before it had time to activate.
- blacksmith_tb 2y ago
  That only works if there's a single code? I would think many keypad systems assign a code to each apartment (so the one written on the side is not a master key, just Joe in #303).
jeffwask 2y ago
> "College campuses are the bane of our existence. You would think that college kids would be smart about these things but they are the absolute worst." This is a huge misconception about GenZ. Unlike Millennials and GenX who had to hack around on PC's to figure out how to torrent, run games, build our own lans for local multiplayer, and generally avoid our parent's prying eyes. GenZ has grown up on devices. You don't modify the OS on devices. You don't hack around on devices; Apps tend to just work with little configuration. GenZ is entering the workforce with lower baseline computer / computer security skills than people think they have.
- RajT88 2y ago
  Well - kind of. PC gaming is bigger than ever before, and PC gaming was how a lot of my generation got into computers. My nephew for a while was very much one of those "grew up on devices" kind of kids - until he got off of gaming on phones and tablets, and got a gaming PC. Now he's reading about technology and tinkering and stuff.
  - blueflow 2y ago
    Its not the same. Nowadays you press a button in steam and the game is installed for you and just works. It does not provide an entrance into technical layers like configuring the soundblaster irq in config.sys did.
    - mardef 2y ago
      It's not the same, but I don't know if it's worse. My IRQ conflict resolution skills or knowledge about himem.sys aren't really useful these days. But I've seen genz kids do incredible things with Minecraft mods and the like that make me reminisce about quake modding. The masses are just blindly using devices, but the masses didn't even have a PC at home 30 years ago.
      - neuralRiot 2y ago
        It used to be that if you wanted to do gaming on a PC you started by building the PC.
lynx97 2y ago
Ahh, the modern verson of the written note under the keyboard... In my area, there is a universal access key (physical) for postal service and newspaper delivery people. So if you want access to a random building, all you need to do is apply as a newspaper delivery guy, or, find one that is willing to give you that master key. To add insult to injury, that type of job is extremely low paying, so much room for abuse. Fact is, locks and closed doors are there to make the owners feel cozy and safe. If you ever needed a locksmith service and watched them do their job, you know your appartment door is just a prop.
- kleiba 2y ago
  Also for insurance. It doesn't matter if it took a guy 10 seconds to break your lock, if you didn't lock your house, chances are your insurance won't pay.
  - lynx97 2y ago
    I didn't propose to leave your door unlocked. It was a cynical take on how much hurdle most locked doors are when someone is determined to get access. Maybe I am that cynical because I attended a lockpicking tutorial once (CCC Camp summer 2003, fun with tech at 37C temperatures, good old times), and as a tech person with some interest in security, learnt my share about social engineering (mostly to pretect myself).
- tecoholic 2y ago
  Modern apartment building. Low rise. Full visibility of courtyard. Cycle gone missing with a baby seat attached. Nothing anyone can do about it. How did they get the key, who let them in, how did they manage to pry open the lock in full visibility? I was seething for a week. But somehow I knew this wasn’t really that big a security challenge for the thief.
- gosub100 2y ago
  That's not true. They raise the bar above the bare minimum. Lots of crimes are ones of opportunity. A gate is the difference between 0 effort and some effort. It makes it a bit harder for a petty thief to cruise through and find low hanging fruit.
imadethis 2y ago
In a similar vein, 0911 or 9111 will often work too for communities in the US. EMS and other first responders run into the same issue with automated calls or panicked people, so they’ll try that first while waiting for dispatch. That code was also used at our (EMS) depots to secure the controlled drugs as well, as if none of us could have guessed it.
paxys 2y ago
The point isn't really for these communities to be Fort Knox. It is understood that if someone really wants to get in they will get in, similar to how if someone really wants to break into your house they will do it regardless of what brand of lock you have on your front door. People live in gated communities because of what the gate represents – a very clear sign telling you and everyone else passing by that you don't belong here.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
wkat4242 2y ago
Here in our building they just ring the doorbell, there's always someone letting them in without even checking. Unfortunately that caused several burglaries too including in my flat :( my alarm scared them off but still..
Thorrez 2y ago
Why are College campuses the bane of existence for your friend? Because college kids write codes on the site of access panels? Wouldn't that make life easier for your friend as a delivery driver? Because college kids don't write codes on the side of access panels? If so, why does your friend describe them as not smart? Isn't it smart to avoid writing codes?
- pipe01 2y ago
  I assume it's because they don't give the drivers the access code when they order

_fat_santa 2y ago

My parents live in a very upscale country club community down in Florida and their gate security is laughable. They assign every household a 4 digit code to enter the community. Given how many homes are in this community, entering any 4 digit code > 1000 and < 2000 will work.

jimt1234 2y ago
My girlfriend lives in an upscale, gated community. Her HOA has done the exact opposite. They change the gate code weekly as way to "protect" themselves from this situation. However, it's kinda had the opposite effect - tailgating has become totally acceptable, even the norm, as people can't keep up with the gate code changes. Amazon drivers usually just sit outside for a minute or two, then tailgate into the neighborhood.
- reaperman 2y ago
  The only gated community / apartment complex's I've ever seen where that was not normal are a subset of the ones that have an on-duty guard - specifically the subset with guards who recognize all the occupants and take the information of anyone they don't recognize.
  - jimt1234 2y ago
    Her community is not guard-gated, but it's extremely snooty/snobby. A number of years ago, before the weekly gate-code changes, the HOA started doing annual code changes on Halloween. Why Halloween, you might ask? Because the service staff of the community (landscapers, house cleaners, etc.) had the audacity to bring their children/grand-children to the neighborhood to trick-or-treat. Residents felt the service staff was just trying to guilt them into giving candy. Keep in mind, all these residents are multi-millionaires, mostly retirees, and they were bitching about having to spend 5 bucks in candy to make children happy.
    - doubled112 2y ago
      Isn’t that usually how the rich stay rich? Does this really seem too surprising? In my experience, and I’m generalizing a lot, the less people have the more generous they tend to be.
      - fragmede 2y ago
        It's an over generalization. The other way the story goes is that the big house with the long driveway in my neighborhood is the one that gave out king sized candy bars on Halloween.
    - AStonesThrow 2y ago
      Considering the origin of trick-or-treating and Halloween customs, that carefree night of fun for kids sounds more like a protection racket.
- bell-cot 2y ago
  They're doing a great job of "protecting" themselves from feeling anxious about Bad Things somehow happening. For an all-too-large fraction of humanity, that's the "protection" which actually matters.
  - chairmansteve 2y ago
    And of course, the gated communities have 6 ft high walls that any 8 yr old could climb over.
- zbrozek 2y ago
  My townhouse HOA decided it was totally worth money to replace our fob system with a system that's deliberately incompatible with Homelink. They claimed without evidence that used car sales were a severe security risk. Nevermind that you can wave any conductor under the gate to trigger the egress wire loop sensor, or just wait a minute or two for someone else to go through. From 6AM to 10PM the other gate is simply open, too. Now I have to pay more for crappier fobs with worse range. It's deeply disappointing.

wildzzz 2y ago

There's a door at work I regularly need to access. It used to be used for another purpose but now is just an extension of the work area. It's got a badge reader and simplex lock but I can't get badge access because I don't actually belong to that work area yet I'm there everyday anyway. However, someone wrote the simplex lock code on a sign in very small numbers for this exact purpose. Other simplex locks in the building use the default code you can find online. The whole building is secure so you'd never be able to walk up to these doors without proper credentials, they are mostly just there to keep out the curious or someone looking to borrow tools that they shouldnt.

atlanticaccent 2y ago
> The whole building is secure Given what you just said and the article you're commenting under, are you sure?
- organsnyder 2y ago
  Anyone wearing a maintenance uniform and carrying a step-ladder could surely find a way in via an overly helpful victim.
  - EvanAnderson 2y ago
    Look like you belong and act confident and you can get nearly anywhere. Props help-- wear a high-vis vest and a hard hat, carry a tablet / folio / clipboard around an office, etc. Confidence is the key, though.
    - organsnyder 2y ago
      You also have to fit a certain expected demographic.
      - EvanAnderson 2y ago
        Sadly, yes-- that's true. It's a game of playing to stereotypes, for sure.

sidewndr46 2y ago

It's far simpler than that. Ever gated community I've ever visited, press any digit 4 times. You're in. The only exception is community with a security guard. The guy obviously isn't just going to let some guy not on the guest list in

adamanonymous 2y ago
Gated communities around me have 2 lanes, one with a sensor activated gate for residents and a guest lane next to the guard hut If it's busy and you pull up in a nice enough car and just wait in front of the sensor gate looking annoyed, the guard will eventually just let you in
renata 2y ago
911 or 9911 is usually a good shot too.

AutistiCoder 2y ago

I was under the impression that delivery drivers had a book or something with these codes. Like, the HOA just like calls the delivery companies and says "hey, here's a code to get in"

DANmode 2y ago
Missed the stories about these guys shitting in the backs of the trucks and vans for lack of time to do their jobs, eh?!
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- zamadatix 2y ago
  A route book or note is already an assumption drivers need to have some method to quickly get through gates. Where it missed out was there are even more efficient solutions to the problem. That's because of not knowing all of the options, not because of assuming drivers just have a lot of spare time to kill so must like the slower and more complicated option.
  - DANmode 2y ago
    This is often left to USPS, UPS, and DHL drivers to figure out on their own. You folks are living in a fantasy land. No wonder it's considered socially acceptable to order multiple Amazon deliveries in a week....

WalterBright 2y ago

I bet you could examine the keypad for wear. The worn keys (or the shiny ones) are the ones for the code. In the days before cell phones, a burglar alarm would dial the alarm company. The phone company likes to install the phone box on the outside of the building. The alarm is defeated by an axe to the cable going in the box. I had a fight with the phone company at my house, as I wanted the box on the inside rather than the outside. They finally agreed on the condition that I maintain the wire to the box. These days, of course, the alarms use wifi or a cell phone to call the alarm company.

bell-cot 2y ago
> These days, of course, the alarms use... And the crooks use RF jammers instead of axes.
- EGreg 2y ago
  These days, alarms use quantum entanglement. Beat that :)
  - WalterBright 2y ago
    I set the Fires of Gondor.
- miki123211 2y ago
  There's enough bandwidth to go around nowadays that alarms can send regular keepalives (which doesn't mean all of them do). If the keepalives stop coming without a proper disarm signal, a fault is raised. Some old alarms had a weaker version of this, where they would dial the security company whenever the door was opened, and then again when the alarm was disarmed. If the second call didn't come in time, the company would instantly know that something was up. This protected against thieves that would enter the house and smash the alarm before it had time to activate.
blacksmith_tb 2y ago
That only works if there's a single code? I would think many keypad systems assign a code to each apartment (so the one written on the side is not a master key, just Joe in #303).

jeffwask 2y ago

> "College campuses are the bane of our existence. You would think that college kids would be smart about these things but they are the absolute worst." This is a huge misconception about GenZ. Unlike Millennials and GenX who had to hack around on PC's to figure out how to torrent, run games, build our own lans for local multiplayer, and generally avoid our parent's prying eyes. GenZ has grown up on devices. You don't modify the OS on devices. You don't hack around on devices; Apps tend to just work with little configuration. GenZ is entering the workforce with lower baseline computer / computer security skills than people think they have.

RajT88 2y ago
Well - kind of. PC gaming is bigger than ever before, and PC gaming was how a lot of my generation got into computers. My nephew for a while was very much one of those "grew up on devices" kind of kids - until he got off of gaming on phones and tablets, and got a gaming PC. Now he's reading about technology and tinkering and stuff.
- blueflow 2y ago
  Its not the same. Nowadays you press a button in steam and the game is installed for you and just works. It does not provide an entrance into technical layers like configuring the soundblaster irq in config.sys did.
  - mardef 2y ago
    It's not the same, but I don't know if it's worse. My IRQ conflict resolution skills or knowledge about himem.sys aren't really useful these days. But I've seen genz kids do incredible things with Minecraft mods and the like that make me reminisce about quake modding. The masses are just blindly using devices, but the masses didn't even have a PC at home 30 years ago.
    - neuralRiot 2y ago
      It used to be that if you wanted to do gaming on a PC you started by building the PC.

lynx97 2y ago

Ahh, the modern verson of the written note under the keyboard... In my area, there is a universal access key (physical) for postal service and newspaper delivery people. So if you want access to a random building, all you need to do is apply as a newspaper delivery guy, or, find one that is willing to give you that master key. To add insult to injury, that type of job is extremely low paying, so much room for abuse. Fact is, locks and closed doors are there to make the owners feel cozy and safe. If you ever needed a locksmith service and watched them do their job, you know your appartment door is just a prop.

kleiba 2y ago
Also for insurance. It doesn't matter if it took a guy 10 seconds to break your lock, if you didn't lock your house, chances are your insurance won't pay.
- lynx97 2y ago
  I didn't propose to leave your door unlocked. It was a cynical take on how much hurdle most locked doors are when someone is determined to get access. Maybe I am that cynical because I attended a lockpicking tutorial once (CCC Camp summer 2003, fun with tech at 37C temperatures, good old times), and as a tech person with some interest in security, learnt my share about social engineering (mostly to pretect myself).
tecoholic 2y ago
Modern apartment building. Low rise. Full visibility of courtyard. Cycle gone missing with a baby seat attached. Nothing anyone can do about it. How did they get the key, who let them in, how did they manage to pry open the lock in full visibility? I was seething for a week. But somehow I knew this wasn’t really that big a security challenge for the thief.
gosub100 2y ago
That's not true. They raise the bar above the bare minimum. Lots of crimes are ones of opportunity. A gate is the difference between 0 effort and some effort. It makes it a bit harder for a petty thief to cruise through and find low hanging fruit.

imadethis 2y ago

In a similar vein, 0911 or 9111 will often work too for communities in the US. EMS and other first responders run into the same issue with automated calls or panicked people, so they’ll try that first while waiting for dispatch. That code was also used at our (EMS) depots to secure the controlled drugs as well, as if none of us could have guessed it.

paxys 2y ago

The point isn't really for these communities to be Fort Knox. It is understood that if someone really wants to get in they will get in, similar to how if someone really wants to break into your house they will do it regardless of what brand of lock you have on your front door. People live in gated communities because of what the gate represents – a very clear sign telling you and everyone else passing by that you don't belong here.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

wkat4242 2y ago

Here in our building they just ring the doorbell, there's always someone letting them in without even checking. Unfortunately that caused several burglaries too including in my flat :( my alarm scared them off but still..

Thorrez 2y ago

Why are College campuses the bane of existence for your friend? Because college kids write codes on the site of access panels? Wouldn't that make life easier for your friend as a delivery driver? Because college kids don't write codes on the side of access panels? If so, why does your friend describe them as not smart? Isn't it smart to avoid writing codes?

pipe01 2y ago
I assume it's because they don't give the drivers the access code when they order