r/Eugene • u/splawnnofsatann • Jul 25 '24
How many other people are having their food stolen off their porch constantly by the homeless folk? Food
Three times in the last two weeks I’ve had my DoorDash orders yanked off my porch within minutes of them being dropped off. I typically do “leave at the door” because I have dogs and kids and everyone wants to say hi when someone comes to the door so it’s typically a smoother process if I just have them leave it in the door mat and I grab it right after they pull off. I have a full porch, it’s not small, and at least 7 feet worth of porch to cross after going up 8 stairs to get to my door and this is still happening.
This morning I was changing clothes for school and saw my phone beep that the order had arrived... I put on one more t-shirt, walked to the door and it was gone. Mind you, this is 7:45am. Also, it’s never been more than a couple minutes that an order has been out there. This has happened to me at all times of the day, morning and night. What in the actual fuck— please stay the fuck off my porch and quit stealing from people in your community. Just because we’re a little bit better off than you (a roof over our heads) doesn’t mean you have the right to take from others, and most of us are struggling to do so.
I’m generally very giving and considerate to the homeless community, I have occasionally put out extra food at the foot of the stairs (on the sidewalk) when I’ve had it to spare, I put my cans out where they can easily be picked up from —outside— of the dumpster… idk maybe that’s why this irritates me so much. I will say the second time this happened I went looking around and another person (also homeless) asked me what was going on, as we recognized each other from our neighborhood, and he actually helped me look for my order, which I thought was very kind. We didn’t find it but he did care and that meant something to me for sure.
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u/legendary_millbilly Jul 25 '24
That guy definitely ate your food.
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u/splawnnofsatann Jul 25 '24 edited Jul 25 '24
lol, if I didn’t know the guy that would have been my first thought too. Certainly the type of thing to do if you don’t want someone thinking it was you. But he’s old as fuck, it would have taken him longer to get up the stairs than it took me to get to the door. The individual that’s yanking my food is a spry bugger.
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u/Affectionate-Art-995 Jul 25 '24
In that case help your Dasher and MEET them at the bottom of the stairs. I have Arthritis and I hate stairs
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u/Calm_Peace5582 Jul 25 '24
You put free food outside your house, and then order more food to be placed outside your house, and now are upset that people are taking the food placed outside your house?
I'm sorry this has happened to you, but I think you might want to ask your delivery people to knock, or stop using delivery services if you want a guarantee that the food won't be taken.
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u/Affectionate-Art-995 Jul 25 '24
OR get a plastic box with a lid. A couple of my customers have me put the order in it
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u/insidmal Jul 25 '24
lol most delivery folks aren't that smart.. I put a folding table next to my front door and they'll 90% of the time drop it on my doorstep instead and the picture they send will literally have the table in the picture lol
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u/popjunky Jul 26 '24
Put a note, or put it in the directions. It’s rude to assume others’ intentions, and dropoff other than a doorstep can get drivers in trouble.
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u/insidmal Aug 18 '24
lmao yes I'll make sure to leave a note next time to leave it on the table directly next to the floor to make sure they don't "get in trouble" (they wouldn't) but realistically I'll just never order it again, the markup is way too high for people to literally throw my food on the ground
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u/popjunky Aug 18 '24
I mean: I agree with you about the markup. But you might want to try driving for a couple weeks. It’s harder than you’d think, and empathy never hurt anyone.
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u/OranjellosBroLemonj Jul 26 '24
Right because homeless people can’t tell the difference between free food and a Door Dash delivery, especially when they see the guy drop it off. 🤷♀️
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u/Calm_Peace5582 Jul 26 '24
Where did I say homeless people can't tell the difference between free food and a Door Dash delivery? Where in this post do we have any evidence homeless people are involved in this story? 🤷♀️
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u/fooliam Jul 25 '24
Yeah how dare someone expect homeless people to not steal from them! Why should we expect homeless people to do something so basic as not take shit that doesn't belong to them?
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u/Calm_Peace5582 Jul 25 '24 edited Jul 25 '24
You ok? I never said anything resembling that. Might want to direct your rage at someone who disagrees with you.
Also, do you see anywhere in the original post where the poster identified who stole their food? Or are we assuming any theft must be committed by those who are homeless?
Take your knee jerk reactions somewhere else, kindly.
Edit: Or you could reply in a manner that demonstrates you didn't bother reading the post, or it's authors admission that they didn't know, but assumed, that homeless people stole their food. And then block me. That'll really show me.
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u/splawnnofsatann Jul 25 '24 edited Jul 25 '24
It’s true I should have added that an elderly female neighbor did observe an order being taken by a homeless individual. She didn’t intervene because she didn’t want to be put in the position of being faced with confrontation.
I should have included that, and it’s additionally still fair to say it’s possible I’m wrongly spreading that observation and evidence across multiple incidences which I do not have proof that all three were taken by homeless people, but if it wasn’t a homeless person every time then the only other option is a neighbor because no one else could get to my door and out of sight that fast apart from one of the two.
Regardless your comment does leave room for reflection when it comes to the fact that I did attribute three thefts to homeless individuals based off of evidence only attributable (without doubt) to one theft.
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u/Dank009 Jul 25 '24
Another likely possibility is the dasher keeping your food, that was my initial assumption before you mentioned a neighbor seeing someone else take it.
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Jul 25 '24
I’m really surprised you’re encouraging strangers to come onto your property when you have kids and elderly neighbors. I fear that stolen deliveries could end up being the least of your worries.
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u/splawnnofsatann Jul 25 '24 edited Jul 25 '24
Well, in truth it’s the sidewalk in front of my house, and I guess my thought was similar to that of putting out a free box of random stuff which is commonly done. But I do see your point. Idk, my bleeding heart wants to help where I can, and my mind would like to believe that a nicety doesn’t always incur someone else taking advantage.
And like I mentioned earlier the frequency in which I’m able to do something like that (maybe 10 times a year) doesn’t feel like it could singularly be the cause of what’s going on but i don’t know, maybe it is.
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u/TheThunderhawk Jul 25 '24 edited Jul 25 '24
It’s not lol they’ve got nothing to do with one another, they aren’t cats waiting outside your house at all hours hoping for a snack because you fed them one time. It’s a crime of opportunity.
Don’t listen to those people, this sub has dumbass ideas about the homeless. Yes, you should meet your dasher at the door to avoid this, but no longer putting out cans of green beans on the sidewalk isn’t gonna prevent this.
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Jul 25 '24
I get that, but it’s not a great idea to put boxes of stuff outside your house either. It’s not safe to attract strangers to your home for any reason, especially if you have children. All the niceties in the world mean nothing if (god forbid) something happened. How about composting extra food and donating what you can to a food bank?
Back to the free piles for a moment: Too often I see soaking wet boxes full of, essentially, garbage. I grab a big black trash bag and some gloves, and I get to work. I encourage folks to use apps like Freeya (Portland) and Trash Nothing (PDX and Eugene) to rehome your belongings. Less trash on our streets and everyone stays safe.
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u/splawnnofsatann Jul 25 '24 edited Jul 26 '24
I think moving forward I will try to utilize more community resources to give how I can.
Strange times. I feel like the days of neighborly giving, garage sales, and the like are disappearing before our eyes. Just now I was thinking about what you said when it comes to not inviting strangers to your house for any reason and a story I haven’t thought about in a long time resurfaced in my mind.
A friend of mine told me a story about how her hometown had a large number of home break ins and robberies that took a long time to get to the bottom of but the short of it is that an individual that frequented yard and garage sales was actually there to scout their homes, garages, and properties to later rob them.
He could tell the quality/ potential value of other items in the home by what they had for sale and at what price. He could see what type of security they had by observing if there was a garage code, dead bolt on the interior garage door, etc. etc. how close the neighbors were and so on. He was as unsuspecting as any other garage sale frequenter and it took them a long time to sort it out because I mean garage sales are one of the few situations where we greet people, talk to them, have a financial exchange, expose our home, etc to essentially a ton of strangers. When someone finally pieced it together about the yard sale part they still had a million strangers that it could have been. Took forever.
Shitty situation, but I have to admit I felt there was something pretty clever about it. He was in and around all of their homes and was essentially a needle in a haystack. May as well have been invisible.
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Jul 26 '24
That’s great! You’re the exact kind of person we need in the community, and you can still do a ton of good. But yes, unfortunately these days we need to be more careful with the ways we give.
On another hand, there are more resources than ever that we can get behind to support those in need. I think there’s hope if we can band together and support those doing the work every day.
That is a harrowing story about the garage sales! So scary — he was basically there to case the homes. Ugh!
As heartbreaking as it is to have to be more careful, I think there are ways around it. For example, I’ve heard about communities across the country getting together and doing joint yard/garage/neighborhood sales in a public spot (even a side street or something).
In general, I think getting to know your neighbors is extremely wise in these times, so focusing on ways to do that could be powerful. Another idea: I’ve heard of families in the same neighborhood or apartment taking turns cooking for each other. So each family or household gets a night of the week and they make a huge batch of food to deliver to those in the group. Then the other nights, they get food delivered to them! Also, I bet if you made extra dinner one night, maybe you could pass along to an elderly neighbor. Another great way to build community and give.
Thanks so much for chatting! I’m really sorry if I came off as harsh earlier, I was very worried for you. I’m in Portland right now, and we just had a major tragedy relating to a mother and pack of pit bulls being kept as pets by homeless folks. I love both Portland and Eugene so much and count them both as my home. It’s so painful to watch what’s happening. Something has to change, and in the meantime, take care of yourself.
Much love ❤️
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u/splawnnofsatann Jul 26 '24
These are all really good ideas and I’m grateful you shared them and happy to know there are families and communities doing things like this to lighten the load for each other. So pleasant to read.
I’m so sorry to hear about the mother you mentioned. If there is a go fund me or anything like that for her/her family that you know of, would you mind sharing it here?
Thanks so much to you as well. 😌🙏
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u/fooliam Jul 25 '24
You mean the title of the post that says "how many other people are having their food stolen off their porch by homeless people?"
That post? The one that literally says homeless people are stealing OPs food?
Get a grip
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u/splawnnofsatann Jul 25 '24 edited Jul 25 '24
as an analogy, it’s kind of like you are trying to argue that if, occasionally, someone puts a box of free shit on the sidewalk outside their house that it’s then fine for people to make the assumption that they can come up to that person’s home and take anything off their porch or doorstep, which is absolute bullshit.
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u/Calm_Peace5582 Jul 25 '24
I'm not arguing anything of the sort, I'm just describing the events of the story you presented. If you want to argue with a strawman feel free, I don't need to be involved.
My argument, if any, would be if you want your deliveries to not go missing, you might want to receive the deliveries yourself.
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Jul 25 '24
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u/Upset_Form_5258 Jul 25 '24
There are ways to donate food that aren’t inviting people onto your property.
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u/splawnnofsatann Jul 25 '24 edited Jul 25 '24
The sidewalk isn’t my property, and like I said prior, that’s not a frequent occurrence. I should just redact that part of the post because it isn’t very relevant to the scenario. it was more meant to draw light upon the fact that I didn’t make this post because I hate homeless people.
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u/splawnnofsatann Jul 25 '24
Fair enough. It’s usually only enough to be a meal for one person though which I guess I didn’t think would be super applicable to being a donation at a shelter, but if it is, that’s good to know for sure.
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u/splawnnofsatann Jul 25 '24 edited Jul 25 '24
Kind of confused as to why this last remark is getting many downvotes, I’m just adding context. I think there’s a pretty obvious difference between the two things. Regardless, as an analogy, it’s kind of like you are trying to argue that if, occasionally, someone puts out a box of free shit on the sidewalk outside their house that it’s then fine for people to make the assumption that they can come up to that person’s home and take anything off their porch or doorstep, which is absolute bullshit.
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Jul 25 '24
It’s not smart to put a bunch of free stuff on the sidewalk outside your house either, ESPECIALLY if you have kids and vulnerable neighbors. Also, it usually ends up in the trash anyway.
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u/Apprehensive-Echo-89 Jul 25 '24
I’m seeing lots of “it’s your fault” comments, which I’m sad to see on here. I hope you find a good solution and get to enjoy your food!!
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u/Alanna_Bloom Jul 25 '24
A ring camera or something similar might act as a deterrent. Sorry this keeps happening to you.
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u/notime4morons Jul 25 '24
Doubtful anybody who would steal food off a porch is going to be deterred by a camera, on the chance even if they know it's there, and what would you do with the evidence anyway?
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u/splawnnofsatann Jul 25 '24
Yea, my cars been broken into two times this year also and I filed report, had footage, etc. but all the footage shows is your typical hooded homeless stealing. There’s nothing the police can do for you apart from verifying with your insurance that you’re not committing fraud trying to replace your window. 🤷🏼♀️
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u/notime4morons Jul 25 '24
It is rather maddening how useless cameras are for this sort of thing, outside of recording a serious felony in progress they serve little effective purpose.
BTW, I'd be careful about filing small insurance claims for things such as broken windows, a good way to get your rates bumped and possibly dropped by your insurer.
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u/Oregon_- Jul 25 '24
What has made a difference for us was obnoxious signs that said we had cameras. No one has tried in the last 2 years since putting signs up. Who knows.. it may be dumb luck.
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u/notime4morons Jul 25 '24
Similar to having alarm company signs on your property but not actually having an alarm company service. And you never really do know if it was just dumb luck or otherwise.
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u/Gettingthatbread23 Jul 25 '24
I feel like I'm alone in this but if I am ever expecting a delivery from DoorDash or some similar service, the tracker is in front of me at all times, and the second I get the "arriving soon" notification I will wait by the door. I'm not worried about getting my food or what not swiped, I just really fucking hate it when people ring my doorbell or knock on my door.
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u/amazingvaluetainment Jul 25 '24
Before we had a dog I'd do the same kind of thing, wait near the door or keep an eye out the window for the delivery. Last thing I want is to leave food sitting on the porch for longer than a minute and that has nothing to do with it being stolen.
These days the dog tells me the food's here.
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u/1961mac Jul 25 '24
Get a sturdy box, attach it to your floor, and put a padlock on it. Leave it open and have the delivery guy put the lock on when they leave the food.
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u/notime4morons Jul 25 '24
Until the clever thief (or thieves ) steal the padlock.
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u/1961mac Jul 25 '24
Padlocks are available at the dollar store and are much cheaper than a meal. That's much better than throwing hands up and doing nothing.
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u/notime4morons Jul 25 '24
Sharp sissors would probably cut one of those cheap locks, lol. But you're right, it's worth a shot.
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u/ScrattaBoard Jul 25 '24
Locks are usually more of a visual deterrent than anything, so no reason to buy a couple hundred dollar lock.
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u/notime4morons Jul 25 '24
Wow, it would never have ocurred to me to spend a couple hundred on a lock to protect a meal delivery, but then it's obvious you've given the matter more thought than I have.
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u/MaraudersWereFramed Jul 25 '24
My thoughts on what I'm reading here.
A ring camera almost certainly isn't going to deter homeless people from stealing your food. Just a waste of money.
They know you didn't order door dash for them. You've been nice and unfortunately that makes you a mark.
Ignore the mild victim blaming. For some reason victim blaming isn't cool, unless the offense was caused by the homeless, then it's okay.
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u/fooliam Jul 25 '24
Right? All this "well you gave them food once, o viously the homeless are going to think all the food is for them!"
They're humans, not fucking raccoons. They know the difference between "oh hey, someone is offering some extra food" and "I can take food off this persons porch whenever it's there!"
That kind of "the homeless can't be expected to follow laws" thinking is why there is so much frustration and compassion fatigue for the homeless.
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u/dotcomse Jul 25 '24
I don’t see anywhere that you confirm that it’s a homeless person stealing. It might be a decent guess, but are you certain it’s not a neighbor? Plenty of unethical people live in houses.
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u/sothenshesays312 Jul 25 '24
Same thought! If you don’t have a camera then you assuming it is a homeless person is nothing more than a wild guess. Have had plenty of instances where things getting stolen ended up being a fully housed person!
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u/splawnnofsatann Jul 25 '24 edited Jul 25 '24
You’re right I should have added that in. One of the occasions that this happened, a neighbor did see a homeless person come up the stairs. She only didn’t walk over or intervene because she’s an older woman and didn’t want to deal with the potential confrontation. I guess it’s true I am attributing that across all incidents which is something I’m going to reflect on now that you’ve said it. I did do that, and maybe wrongly so. Appreciate the comment, it’s true and very clear to me that there are just as many unethical people that are not homeless and i definitely don’t want to seem thoughtless in how I’ve pointed my finger. I’ll keep my peepers on the neighbors, lol.
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u/dotcomse Jul 25 '24
I wasn’t trying to shame you, just might be a good reminder to everyone that not all the problems they see are caused by the same boogie man.
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Jul 25 '24
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u/splawnnofsatann Jul 25 '24 edited Jul 25 '24
I completely get that and I usually am vigilant as to when they’re arriving as well. Not to hand it to me, but the rest for sure. it just feels like if there’s any opportunity at all, mere minutes, which sometimes with kids just has to be the case due to god knows what at that particular time, they just take it. It’s never been more than 5 minutes. Which begs the question, how are they watching homes so vigilantly that they are able to immediately seize such opportunities? Which is almost the bit of this that makes me feel the most uncomfortable. I wonder if there’s networking going on and if it’s more deliberate than, let’s call it, “random opportunist homeless behavior.” I’ve seen the ingenuity of the homeless community and I tell you what, it’s impressive. If they’d ever put that level of ingenuity towards anything else in their life, it’s highly unlikely (in most cases) that they would ever have become homeless in the first place. Which I guess makes sense to a degree because people become content and comfortable and homelessness seems like a bizarre reality in that perspective and then they don’t feel the drive or need operate in such a way and think critically the same way they do when faced with absolute survival environs such as being homeless.
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u/Affectionate-Art-995 Jul 25 '24
Dasher here. Choose 'Hand It To Me'. Put the dogs up as soon as order gets picked up (keep checking as app will notify you) bc it'll be there within 10 min or so. It's a pretty simple solution for spending $23 for 1 sandwich🤷♀️ And tip at least $5 unless you're like 8 miles from the restaurant,then tip $8/10 please and thank you. This also ensure that order gets picked up faster before it gets cold. We have other deliveries in the car and are always in a hurry.
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u/splawnnofsatann Jul 25 '24 edited Jul 25 '24
I appreciate getting a response from a dasher actually and I’m glad you commented. I’ll respond to each of your points.
I typically only order early morning or late at night which is related to my schedule with my family, which we won’t bore anyone with the details of, but usually that means less foot traffic and with the sometimes immediate demands of my family I choose to select leave it at the door as a courtesy to dashers so that they do not have to wait for me as their time is valuable and I know you guys are busy. That’s mainly why I do it, and have previously felt comfortable knowing I can get to it within a few minutes and it will be there. It’s only been recently that they’ve been vanishing within a few minutes of being dropped off. Which is why I was wondering if it was happening to other people as well. I do tend to be as frugal as I can with purchases as I’m a single mother of two (apart from tipping) and have found a handful of places I can get “out the door” under $20 apart from tip. (Which I’d be happy to make a separate post on for those that need this convenience and would be interested in that affordability).
To your other point, I grew up in North Carolina where the pay for a server is less than $2.00 and your livelihood in the service industry is entirely your tips. Ive never tipped less than 20% in my life, and often tip 30-40% if I can because I know it makes a difference in other people’s lives and I appreciate being able to utilize the convenience of DoorDash when I need it.
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u/throwawaypickle777 Jul 25 '24
Hungry people will steal food. Seems like it would be easier to meet them. FWIW I have dogs and kids and live in a neighborhood that doesn’t have such issues and always meet them To prevent the same thing. It’s also why I make sure there are never any returnable bottles in the outside recycling because people start looking for bottles and notice the kid left their bike out (again) then the bike goes missing.
If you feed the squirrels they start coming around more. So don’t feed the squirrels.
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u/pirawalla22 Jul 25 '24
That sucks, for sure. I just want to mention that I order from doordash relatively frequently and I live among one of the densest concentrations of unhoused people in town, and this has never happened to me in six years. "I got a phone notification and by the time I got to my front door the food was gone" is extremely suspicious. It seems like your house has become some kind of target.
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u/splawnnofsatann Jul 25 '24
Yea, it is weird. I order a decent amount at least one time a week, I would say. There’s one morning a week that I’ve pretty much committed to doing it because I have to be at work very early that day and I free up the time usually spent doing morning cooking by ordering DoorDash so I can get there when I need to. I’ve been doing that for a while. I’ve never had an issue with theft before this current month. One time I even fell asleep and woke up and by some miracle it was still out there. Granted that particular meal was in a paper bag. Didn’t scream food order like a bag of Dave’s chicken does, lol. Anyway, yea, the thefts only recently started happening.
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u/HelpfulRoyal Jul 25 '24
u/splawnnofsatann , I just wanted to say that I notice that all of your replies just seem really well thought out and kind, even in the face of push back. I suspect (with no other proof) that you are a great person and a excellent parent :)
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u/splawnnofsatann Jul 25 '24 edited Jul 26 '24
😌
reading this made my day. thank you. truly
[smiles and then also laughs because in my head I jokingly said to myself, “that was so nice to read that I don’t know if I even care about my missing Mac and cheese anymore.”]
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u/Halloween2022 Jul 25 '24
I'm diabolical. I would stage a fake delivery with a friend and cameras and a very - hot - but - not - deadly peppered sandwich.
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u/splawnnofsatann Jul 25 '24
lol, good idea. Let’s just hope they don’t shit their ass from it in my driveway
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Jul 25 '24
Stopped someone from stealing food that a doordasher delivered last week sometime. Patterson street. Then he asked me for a cigarette. True story.
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u/rocket-c4t Jul 25 '24
Sounds like a ring camera and motion activated lights may be in your future
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u/rocket-c4t Jul 25 '24
Also, don’t leave food out for people. It’s a nice idea that may give them the wrong idea about taking your things
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u/cassienebula Jul 25 '24
instructions to driver: do not ring doorbell or knock. text me and wait for me to physically come get it from you.
👍
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u/PunksOfChinepple Jul 25 '24
Options are "hand it to me" , or "leave at door, send a pic". OP has already said they don't want to use the "hand it to me" option. Kinda limiting.
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u/cassienebula Jul 25 '24
yeah. the reality of it is, the second that driver leaves, someone could have been waiting to snatch it.
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u/mmmohreally Jul 25 '24
Uh, they’re coming by to check and see if you left food out for them. They’re hungry and just a few feet more they get a nice tasty door dash. You’re inviting them to take it.
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u/splawnnofsatann Jul 25 '24 edited Jul 25 '24
I really shouldn’t have included that in my original post as the number of times I’ve left something at the sidewalk line of my property is probably less that ten times a year, I guess it’s true that may be a lot more that most people do but I don’t think it’s enough to warrant the ideology that my home has become a place that homeless scout regularly for a free meal or that something for them would be expected to be there. I truly only added those parts of the post in order to set the tone of the post which I did because I didn’t want the perception to be, “fuck all homeless people, I hate them because they’re stealing from me.” I wanted to express by saying those things that I do have compassion for them but am just frustrated at my recent experiences with theft.
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u/Thundersson1978 Jul 26 '24
The only thing I have had stolen of my porch was a wheel barrel and a box of 1000 556 rounds.
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u/splawnnofsatann Jul 26 '24
Same incident? Or separate? If same, sounds like they were halfway on their way to handle some “business” by the time they left with the goods off of your porch. Yippee ki yay
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u/IPAtoday Jul 25 '24
Just another reason to avoid door dash and any other delivery service in addition to the utterly ridiculous mark-ups.
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u/lostatcea Jul 25 '24
Literally has nothing to do with doordash and has to to do with the fact that eugene is a cesspool full of trash
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u/IPAtoday Jul 25 '24
I’ve learned it’s just not worth it to have nice things for the very reason you state.
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u/MaxScar Jul 25 '24
Require a verification code when you order. They have to wait for you to answer the door and get a code from you.
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u/dotcomse Jul 25 '24
Drivers will love that!
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u/MaxScar Jul 25 '24
They would love it even more if people spotted using the delivery service so they didn't have to work at all.
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Jul 25 '24
[deleted]
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u/MaxScar Jul 25 '24
Yeah, im matching your sarcasm. They will do it because that's in the job. If people stop ordering food off these apps because of the theft, they won't have any work. So your comment is illogical.
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u/Affectionate-Art-995 Jul 25 '24
DD doesn't have those only Uber Eats
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u/MaxScar Jul 25 '24
Perhaps they should switch then. Contact DD and tell them they need to implement this feature.
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u/Le-Deek-Supreme Jul 25 '24
After reading your comments, it's either the food you leave on the steps that's attracting people to your porch or your Doordashers are stealing your food. I'd put up two signs: one sign stating that your generosity stops at the bottom of the stairs & any food an the porch is off limits and one sign stating there's a camera taping the area for any porch thefts that occur. Hopefully, the two signs combined will deter whatever is (likely) happening.
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u/Wh1ppetFudd Jul 26 '24
Homeless people and porch pirates don't care about cameras or trespassing signs. They know that Eugene police don't ever look for thieves or do anything about theft. They don't even do anything about car theft unless you tell him your vehicle is worth over $10,000.
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u/TheYammyYammy Jul 25 '24
I went through the same thing, but never leave anything for folks outside my house but have had every lawn ornament stolen camera we can’t have anything nice because people feel entitled to our property for some reason which to me is really frustrating as I have ptsd and was assaulted trying to exit my home. I work with this community and I’m not even safe at my house anymore. Yes moving would be an option if I had thousands of dollars. I think it’s time to stop giving and giving. I’m sorry you’re going through this, I meet doordash at my door from now on. I also make a point to sit outside more often and make my presence known that I am home and will not put up with this nonsense. It’s trespassing on private property regardless of whether you’re compassionate or not.
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u/Arachnidaes Jul 26 '24
I don’t want to freak you out but you might want to see if anyone has taken up residence under your porch. It sounds crazy but it happens.
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u/splawnnofsatann Jul 26 '24 edited Jul 26 '24
Oh laawd. Just got the hibbie jibbies. I got a black widow living in my trash can and now you tell me ~this~
I will be checking. [laughs nervously]
Edit: let’s clarify, I am referring to my OUTSIDE trash bin. see other post. This week has been a doozy.
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u/LoonSC Jul 26 '24
I leave a note, “call or text when here” for every grubhub order. Granted not every delivery driver reads the attached notes, but it’s served me well for the most part.
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u/nolimits208 Jul 26 '24
Caught a guy stealing my roommates son’s motorcycle helmet. He got his ass beat bad after I chased him all the way to the river. I told him several times to just drop the helmet and we’re good but he thought he could outrun my fat ass. He got jacked up over stupidity. If he was hungry I would have thrown a couple steaks on the grill. I think he wanted money for other activities. I hate a thief. I know I’m in the whit but I’ll beat your ass if you ever steal from this house.
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u/Wh1ppetFudd Jul 26 '24
I'm going to join the bandwagon of people suggesting that you actually meet the person delivering your food at the door and don't have them drop it where someone can just walk up and grab it, and this doesn't just apply to food deliveries but to pretty much anything as porch pirates are more common in most neighborhoods than stray cats these days. If you don't have a way to secure deliveries or can't meet or delivery man when packages are being delivered, do what I did for years and get yourself a mailbox at some mail center other than the post office and let them deal with your packages till you can swing by to pick them up.
As far as the food stuff goes, I don't know how up-to-date DoorDash keeps you with their app, as doordash does not work where I live because they think my address is in San Francisco and not in Eugene Oregon but I know that grubhub gives you updates at every step of the food delivery process and gives you a heads up when the food is on the way as well as when it's almost about to arrive. I have never failed to walk downstairs at my apartment complex and meet a delivery person at the door before they even arrived. If you use a service that does regular updates, you could meet them outside without them even having to knock on the door and never have to wait more than a minute or two for them to pull up.
But seriously, if food is regularly being stolen off of your porch within minutes, it's a no-brainer that food shouldn't be dropped on your porch.
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Jul 25 '24
The more you give the more they will take. Actually even if you give nothing they’ll still take from you.
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u/ApplesBananasRhinoc Jul 25 '24
Sounds like they know you get stuff delivered often and are keeping an eye out for it. Get a camera!
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u/seaofthievesnutzz Jul 26 '24 edited Jul 26 '24
I put my food in the fridge personally.
edit: I actually read the post and had an aneurysm. If you feed them they will come, they do not thank you for your generosity and decide "O hey best not to mess with them". This is like leaving out food for bears, one day bears come in and eat your dog and you lament saying you are so good to the bears why would they eat your dog.
There is a reason why Springfield banned handing money to panhandlers, stop feeding them and they will stop coming around.
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u/Yoghurt-Stunning Jul 26 '24
Also, some dashers will drop the food, take the photo then pick the food back up and take it.
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u/FluxCap85 Jul 25 '24
Going to put on my old grumpy guy hat here and suggest a solution. Stop using Doordash and all those other food delivery services, which drive up food prices, and just buy your food at a grocery store and prepare it at home. Oh, I know... life is busy... kids.. pets yadda yadda. Well... people somehow managed to not starve to death before the rise of food delivery apps... and you can too. Plus... that would be one less reason for the homeless folks to frequent your porch.
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u/Maximum_Pollution371 Jul 25 '24
They don't even need to prepare food at home, there are a million pre-prepared meal options in the freezer section. Seems cheaper and much more convenient for a parent in a hurry than Doordash. 🤷
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Jul 25 '24
Do they leave behind a calling card saying "thanks for the food suckers from, the homeless people"?
It's more likely one of your neighbors.
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Jul 26 '24
Well, putting out food for homeless has backfired. No surprise there.
There's a reason why you and your homeless friend didn't find your food.
You've become a neighborhood nuisance.
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u/BlackshirtDefense Jul 26 '24
OP learning firsthand how entitlements and handouts actually work.
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u/splawnnofsatann Jul 26 '24
I’d really just like to believe that every nicety doesn’t incur people taking advantage. Call it naivety, maybe it is so, but fuck, I’d love to still be able to think I can afford to make gestures of kindness in my life.
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u/BlackshirtDefense Jul 26 '24
You may like to believe, but clearly people are taking advantage. Somebody will ALWAYS take advantage.
Time to find a new small way to be nice to the universe.
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u/AvoidTheDarkness Jul 26 '24
If you can order food from door dash (which is very overpriced), you must be doing better than just having a roof over your head.(not judging, just sayin' doordash is a lot of extra pay for the "convenience" factor that most struggling people shouldn't include in their tight budget. Sorry this keeps happening to you.
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u/splawnnofsatann Jul 26 '24 edited Jul 26 '24
I am very careful about what I order from door dash and very smart about hitting the $12 mark for free or reduced delivery and it’s mostly for my two children one day a week in the morning when I have to go to work earlier that usual, and these days if I can feed both of my kids for roughly $6 a child plus a tip I’m not spending an outrageous amount of money there.
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u/AvoidTheDarkness Jul 26 '24
Like I said, no judgement. Everyone gets to spend however they want in this country. All I was saying is that the $12 plus tip($14 total) is probably overpaying. Cereal and milk, or a Jimmie Dean Breakfast Sandwhich, or Eggo Waffles, or Instant Oatmeal and Sausage all can be done for under $2 a kid and take less than 3 min to prepare. So $4, a savings of $10. Sounds like you are home for delivery so if you spent 3 extra minutes in the preparing, you could save $10/week or $520/year. In 16 years, thats over $8000 for 41 hours worth of work($200/hour), which is enough to help each of your kids buy their first car. Which is a great savings in a tight budget. But it's all good. We all have our areas of splurging. Either way, no one should steal off your porch. Sorry about that.
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u/Danezavis Jul 28 '24
'Lazy person helps their neighbors with convenient food delivery.'
PHYSICALLY GO TO THE BUSINESSES. SUPPORT YOUR COMMUNITY RATHER THAN STOCKHOLDERS.
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u/Comatreats710420 Jul 25 '24
Yep they took my order the other day but nothing is being done about this problem and I’m out $46 that I can’t get back that a homeless person who doesn’t deserve it my food sorry but if you can’t buy it, don’t take it. Sorry if that sounds cruel, but I work hard for what I made able to buy, and what luxuries I have and that was ordering as a meal for me and my boyfriend from red Robin.
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u/Randomman2789 Jul 25 '24
That's just in their nature. Even with the shelter provided, they still trash places on campus and feel entitled to everything on there.
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Jul 25 '24
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u/bulls-i- Jul 25 '24
What a privilege to be stolen from lmao. You own a phone? Computer? Car? Go give it to the homeless. In fact since you must not be “unhoused” why don’t you free up some space and reduce the amount of people living on the street? I see you went on a pizza binge in Portland! I hope you found the good in your heart to share with all the homeless. It also appears you spend a lot of time traveling. That’s expensive. You know you could instead donate all of your spare money to the people more in need of it. This is an absurd notion on your part. It’s not a privilege to have things you pay for taken from you by anyone, regardless of their situation. It’s a shame that people don’t have places to live, and a lot of people didn’t choose that life, but a lot of them did as well. There’s resources in our community to help get them on their feet, or at the bare minimum keep them fed. They aren’t dropping dead from starvation.
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Jul 25 '24
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u/bulls-i- Jul 25 '24
Look dude, I respect that you want to support people in need. But the homeless don’t NEED to steal food, and quite frankly, even if they do, it doesn’t need to be from their fellow citizens. They have access to food stamps and food banks. And in case you haven’t noticed, we live in a city full of multi million dollar corporations that won’t go under from them stealing sandwiches should it come to that. They have access to the shelter, depending on whether they are clean or not. If not they have access to rehab. They don’t NEED to steal from other people in the community. We offer resources to these people. I seriously doubt that you would hold the same belief about your pizza or car being stolen by someone who wasn’t “in need.” Why is that? Because it’s a crime probably. And because it’s wrong. Homeless people shouldn’t get a pass from the law just because they’re homeless. If they need to steal to eat, so be it. But even if that’s the case (which like I’ve said is unlikely considering we literally GIVE food to these people) there is better options than a residential porch. Grocery stores exist, and they are literally all over the country, consistently earning millions of dollars daily. If you MUST steal to survive, do it there; not from the average person.
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Jul 26 '24
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u/bulls-i- Jul 26 '24
Dude I can’t afford to order grubhub. I don’t have a porch, and I’ve BEEN homeless. Never have I stolen from other people in my community. It’s wrong. I have to bust my ass to survive, like most people. Ordering food is not an invitation for the less fortunate to steal it from you. Owning a home or paying rent is not an invitation for those less fortunate to move in with you. Just because someone has a place to live and enough disposable income to treat themselves doesn’t mean they are suddenly obligated to “pay it forward” involuntarily or not to the homeless. That’s ridiculous. Why is it that you draw the line at someone breaking into your house? They need a place to stay! More than likely because it’s not your responsibility to house everyone in need. Pull your head out of your ass.
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u/splawnnofsatann Jul 25 '24
For starters, no one only has one thing to worry about. That type of speaking in absolutes will catch you some grief to being with.
Apart from that, my issue is not that they need something. My issue is the theft and dishonesty of it.
If someone knocked on my door and said, I’m sorry I came up onto your property, but I’m wondering if you had some food to spare? I’ve seen that occasionally you put things out on the sidewalk, and I’m so hungry. I felt comfortable enough from seeing your previous generosity that I had the thought, “maybe I could go up there and ask for help.”
I would go inside my house and find something for them and happily give it to them. They would not leave my porch empty handed. Of course I couldn’t do that all day, or all the time, no average single individual could provide that type of relief to those in need, but within my means, I would help those I could.
I don’t want people on my property if they’re going to steal, if they need help and ask for it, completely different story.
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u/Rihzopus Jul 25 '24
Can I get your name, address, SS#, and mothers maiden name please?
I mean, since youre rich enough, and I happen to be struggling at the moment, it would be your privilege for me to steal your identity so that I can buy a few months worth of food.
Right?
If you don't feel comfortable responding here, please hit me in private messages.
Thanks!
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Jul 26 '24
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u/Rihzopus Jul 26 '24
Lowlifes like me?
Nice...
I'm not a criminal, I work my ass off doing anything that's needs doing and pays. But I'm still in need.
I'm barely covering rent and bills, but I feel blessed I have a garden so I can eat something other than top ramen and quesadillas.
Meanwhile, you're over here being "rich," saying you don't mind if people steal from you. At least I have the decency to ask if I can steal from you.
But I'm sure you didn't mean that you'd be ok with people stealing from you, but sure are fine with them stealing from others.
And I'm the lowlife..
So about those details, are you gonna pm them to me or what?
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Jul 26 '24
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u/Rihzopus Jul 26 '24
The year is 2024, and this motherfucker has no concept of sarcasm.
Good luck richie rich...
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u/MaraudersWereFramed Jul 25 '24
Lol this has got to be a troll post.
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u/DragonfruitTiny6021 Jul 25 '24 edited Jul 25 '24
Just want to know was the food good? And how much did they tip?
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u/notime4morons Jul 25 '24
"I put out extra food at the foot of the stairs,"
Well that might be your problem, you're already allowing people to come on to your property to take food so maybe someone has decided to enlarge on your generosity. Just a thought.