3 ms·

Yeah, well I won't be going to Home Despot any longer. I'd love to know the tech (and company) that provided the devices.

nikkwong 11mo ago
What should Home Depot be doing? They don’t control the administration or the ICE raids. Forcing day laborers off the property ensures less raids happen on the property—I haven’t really understood the boycotts.
- mylifeandtimes 11mo ago
  They don't have to set up Flock cameras and share the data with people who plan the ICE raids. Home Depot's hands aren't totally clean here.
  - nostrebored 11mo ago
    Why not? It is really no different than having drug dealers set up shop on your corner and sharing footage with police. You have people who are likely committing criminal activity (multiple crimes in the day laborer case) and are sharing footage with the relevant authorities. The politicization of enforcement doesn’t change that as a business owner I would not want to own the location people facilitate illegal transactions.
    - aftbit 11mo ago
      I always thought having day laborers chilling in Home Depot parking lots was a net positive thing for the store and a bit of an untapped potential. Companies pay a lot of money to insert themselves in the hiring stream, and here is Home Depot as the defacto meeting point for a substantial amount of economic activity. Surely a more intelligent and less frightened company could make something positive out of this. But that's what you get with a fear-based political leadership. ICE targets day laborers not because of the horrible damage they do to the US economy, but because they have been selected as the scapegoats du jour.
      - pandaman 11mo ago
        How can an intelligent company make money from illegal activity in your opinion? Day laborers hang in the parking lot because they can't work legally, if they could then they could use HD's contractor portal and bid on jobs there.
    - lieability 11mo ago
      > no different In your world view immigrants working jobs you find beneath you is the same as someone selling drugs? > likely committing criminal activity You understand that exploiting day laborers to circumvent labor laws puts the, mostly civil though vanishingly rare criminal, liability on the employer rather than the employee, right? We use laws rather than your own personal hatred of immigrants to define criminality.
      - nostrebored 11mo ago
        I’ve done landscaping, home repair, fence construction, outdoor painting. My family still actively does. I don’t find them beneath me. Working under the table without work authorization is actually spectacularly illegal as an employer and employee. Tax evasion is also spectacularly illegal as an individual. What are you talking about?
        lieability 11mo ago
        [dead]
        nostrebored 11mo ago
        You seem to not be reading anything I’m saying. I have family that works for legally operated blue collar businesses. The difference is engaging in criminal activity. Your arguments are spectacularly lazy so I’ll ask you to show me where people not authorized to work in the country have no legal liability if they choose to work in the country. I don’t really know what’s ruffled your feathers so much here, but this isn’t really how HN operates. It seems like you got a bit flustered when the “you’re a bad rich person” argument didn’t work, and now you’re just flailing wildly.
        lieability 11mo ago
        [flagged]
        11mo ago
  - Telemakhos 11mo ago
    Home Depot put up the cameras to deal with organized crime, both theft and gift-card fraud. Flock specifically advertises that Home Depot put up the cameras to deal with gift card fraud: > The Home Depot leveraged Flock Safety’s technology to close a case involving a multi-state gift card tampering ring, resulting in fraud and property theft charges exceeding $300,000. This type of success underscores how powerful connected data can be in mitigating fraud risks. [0] Aside from that, Home Depot has been dealing with massive, multi-state, organized theft campaigns. Earlier this month, NY prosecutors lodged 780 counts of theft against thirteen suspects who stole millions of dollars of merchandise from Home Depot stores in nine states [1]. Not everything is about illegal immigrants. [0] https://www.flocksafety.com/blog/combating-retail-fraud-with-data-driven-security https://www.flocksafety.com/blog/combating-retail-fraud-with... [1] https://queenseagle.com/all/2025/12/12/retail-theft-ring-that-stole-22-mil-from-home-depot-busted https://queenseagle.com/all/2025/12/12/retail-theft-ring-tha...
    - Hizonner 11mo ago
      You wanna prevent gift card fraud? Stop selling gift cards. Gift cards are a huge fraud vehicle by their nature. Home Depot is just noticing because it fraud against them, rather than the more usual money laundering for scams. Retailers turn a bit of a blind eye, since they make so much money from gift cards that never get used or end up with leftover balances. But really gift cards are an attractive nuisance, and add no value for the (non-sucker) consumer. And the cameras will have small effectiveness after the first few arrests anyway. "Don't let the LPR catch your car" just becomes part of the tradecraft for these organized operations. Whereas sporadic, opportunistic, individualized ripoffs won't create much of a signature in the LPR stream.
  - vorpalhex 11mo ago
    Last time I got 10 gauge conduit wiring it was literally padlocked and needed a manager to get because the theft issues are so bad.
- djoldman 11mo ago
  HD doesn't need anything more than asking people to leave their property. These folks generally are on a public sidewalk.
- nroets 11mo ago
  Could there be a motif unrelated to ICE ? That Home Depot does not like that day labourers are loitering and approaching customers entering and leaving the store.
  - mindslight 11mo ago
    Likely because they contrast with many of its own employees' lack of helpfulness, knowledge, or work ethic.
  - deleted 11mo ago
    [deleted]
  - adgjlsfhk1 11mo ago
    if so, you wouldn't expect this to be a new policy
  - paleotrope 11mo ago
    I believe Home Depot offers a similar service now so in a way they are directly competing
- singleshot_ 11mo ago
  Whatever they should be doing, it mustn't make my ears ring when I go to their store. There is only one way to prevent this: Lowe's.
- viraptor 11mo ago
  > What should Home Depot be doing? Nothing? Why should they do anything?
- xracy 11mo ago
  Lobbying against the administration doing raids? It seems to me like every single part of this would hurt their business... They put up deterrents for day-laborers who might otherwise shop for the projects they're getting hired for at home depot...
fhdkweig 11mo ago
I don't know if the Home Depot in question is using The Mosquito, but it is a product that has been on the market for about 20 years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mosquito https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mosquito

nikkwong 11mo ago

What should Home Depot be doing? They don’t control the administration or the ICE raids. Forcing day laborers off the property ensures less raids happen on the property—I haven’t really understood the boycotts.

mylifeandtimes 11mo ago
They don't have to set up Flock cameras and share the data with people who plan the ICE raids. Home Depot's hands aren't totally clean here.
- nostrebored 11mo ago
  Why not? It is really no different than having drug dealers set up shop on your corner and sharing footage with police. You have people who are likely committing criminal activity (multiple crimes in the day laborer case) and are sharing footage with the relevant authorities. The politicization of enforcement doesn’t change that as a business owner I would not want to own the location people facilitate illegal transactions.
  - aftbit 11mo ago
    I always thought having day laborers chilling in Home Depot parking lots was a net positive thing for the store and a bit of an untapped potential. Companies pay a lot of money to insert themselves in the hiring stream, and here is Home Depot as the defacto meeting point for a substantial amount of economic activity. Surely a more intelligent and less frightened company could make something positive out of this. But that's what you get with a fear-based political leadership. ICE targets day laborers not because of the horrible damage they do to the US economy, but because they have been selected as the scapegoats du jour.
    - pandaman 11mo ago
      How can an intelligent company make money from illegal activity in your opinion? Day laborers hang in the parking lot because they can't work legally, if they could then they could use HD's contractor portal and bid on jobs there.
  - lieability 11mo ago
    > no different In your world view immigrants working jobs you find beneath you is the same as someone selling drugs? > likely committing criminal activity You understand that exploiting day laborers to circumvent labor laws puts the, mostly civil though vanishingly rare criminal, liability on the employer rather than the employee, right? We use laws rather than your own personal hatred of immigrants to define criminality.
    - nostrebored 11mo ago
      I’ve done landscaping, home repair, fence construction, outdoor painting. My family still actively does. I don’t find them beneath me. Working under the table without work authorization is actually spectacularly illegal as an employer and employee. Tax evasion is also spectacularly illegal as an individual. What are you talking about?
      - lieability 11mo ago
        [dead]
        nostrebored 11mo ago
        You seem to not be reading anything I’m saying. I have family that works for legally operated blue collar businesses. The difference is engaging in criminal activity. Your arguments are spectacularly lazy so I’ll ask you to show me where people not authorized to work in the country have no legal liability if they choose to work in the country. I don’t really know what’s ruffled your feathers so much here, but this isn’t really how HN operates. It seems like you got a bit flustered when the “you’re a bad rich person” argument didn’t work, and now you’re just flailing wildly.
        lieability 11mo ago
        [flagged]
        11mo ago
- Telemakhos 11mo ago
  Home Depot put up the cameras to deal with organized crime, both theft and gift-card fraud. Flock specifically advertises that Home Depot put up the cameras to deal with gift card fraud: > The Home Depot leveraged Flock Safety’s technology to close a case involving a multi-state gift card tampering ring, resulting in fraud and property theft charges exceeding $300,000. This type of success underscores how powerful connected data can be in mitigating fraud risks. [0] Aside from that, Home Depot has been dealing with massive, multi-state, organized theft campaigns. Earlier this month, NY prosecutors lodged 780 counts of theft against thirteen suspects who stole millions of dollars of merchandise from Home Depot stores in nine states [1]. Not everything is about illegal immigrants. [0] https://www.flocksafety.com/blog/combating-retail-fraud-with-data-driven-security https://www.flocksafety.com/blog/combating-retail-fraud-with... [1] https://queenseagle.com/all/2025/12/12/retail-theft-ring-that-stole-22-mil-from-home-depot-busted https://queenseagle.com/all/2025/12/12/retail-theft-ring-tha...
  - Hizonner 11mo ago
    You wanna prevent gift card fraud? Stop selling gift cards. Gift cards are a huge fraud vehicle by their nature. Home Depot is just noticing because it fraud against them, rather than the more usual money laundering for scams. Retailers turn a bit of a blind eye, since they make so much money from gift cards that never get used or end up with leftover balances. But really gift cards are an attractive nuisance, and add no value for the (non-sucker) consumer. And the cameras will have small effectiveness after the first few arrests anyway. "Don't let the LPR catch your car" just becomes part of the tradecraft for these organized operations. Whereas sporadic, opportunistic, individualized ripoffs won't create much of a signature in the LPR stream.
- vorpalhex 11mo ago
  Last time I got 10 gauge conduit wiring it was literally padlocked and needed a manager to get because the theft issues are so bad.
djoldman 11mo ago
HD doesn't need anything more than asking people to leave their property. These folks generally are on a public sidewalk.
nroets 11mo ago
Could there be a motif unrelated to ICE ? That Home Depot does not like that day labourers are loitering and approaching customers entering and leaving the store.
- mindslight 11mo ago
  Likely because they contrast with many of its own employees' lack of helpfulness, knowledge, or work ethic.
- deleted 11mo ago
  [deleted]
- adgjlsfhk1 11mo ago
  if so, you wouldn't expect this to be a new policy
- paleotrope 11mo ago
  I believe Home Depot offers a similar service now so in a way they are directly competing
singleshot_ 11mo ago
Whatever they should be doing, it mustn't make my ears ring when I go to their store. There is only one way to prevent this: Lowe's.
viraptor 11mo ago
> What should Home Depot be doing? Nothing? Why should they do anything?
xracy 11mo ago
Lobbying against the administration doing raids? It seems to me like every single part of this would hurt their business... They put up deterrents for day-laborers who might otherwise shop for the projects they're getting hired for at home depot...

fhdkweig 11mo ago

I don't know if the Home Depot in question is using The Mosquito, but it is a product that has been on the market for about 20 years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mosquito https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mosquito