Do ‘they’ still make that invisible dye stuff? You paint it on money and it is invisible. Then when someone steals it, a few hours later it turns green on their fingers and they can’t wash it off for days.

Frankly, your restraint has been admirable. Someone is stealing your shit. You don’t owe them anything. I would personally videotape it, catch the person, then tell them if your paper is stolen again, the videotape goes to the police and you will file a complaint.

Here’s the link from sharper image:

http://www.sharperimage.com/us/en/catalog/product/sku__SI676FUN

It’s $50, which is pricey, but keep in mind that you get 8 discs, so you could sacrifice the one disc and use the other 7 on stuff you are always losing around the house. Plus, I think there are cheaper versions of basically the same thing out there.

What about a simple note stuck to the wall telling people to be on the lookout for a dirty thief that lives among them?

First, like Stef says above, consider a public notice on the wall or a bulletin board. Maybe the prospect of being identified will dissuade this person (and maybe others in your building are having similar problems).

Second, can anything be done about the way the newspaper is delivered? I imagine that they wash their hands of it (after the paper is delivered, its not their responsibility), but they’ve surely dealt with complaints about papers being stolen. Is there place the paper could be dropped off? Is there a consistent time it is delivered?

Good luck!

Enables you to confront them at your door and say “excuse me, why have you been stealing my newspapers which I have paid for”

Either that, or hide a huge spider (live) in the paper

You could buy one of those obnoxious Halloween motion detector things that makes a loud noise if you go buy it. You could try to aim it such that if your paper moves, it goes off. Keep close enough to your door where you can hear it and jump out at the right time.

I still like the fishing line or electronic locater ideas better.

I also have a laptop motion alarm that could be put in the paper and when the thief moves it it makes the worst noise! I can see them running away in a panic!

A confrontation would be another idea, but you don’t know how that will play out as he’s already ignored your note.

Putting up a “Beware”-sign sounds good, too.

What about putting up a sign saying:
“Beware: There is a thief among us… A thief or thieves have been stealing people’s mail and newspapers. As mail theft is a serious crime I have informed the police, blah blah blah”

I realise that mail hasn’t actually been stolen, but the paper-thief may now give up so as not to be drawn into the mail-theft conspiracy. Or something.

Jammer, have you tried calling the police? I know there’s not much they could do to stop it, but they might be able to give some useful advice.

So I offer a simple solution:
Cancel the delivery.
Then (as you’ve been doing for some time) learn to live without it, or go and buy a copy yourself.

The result? The thief will pick on someone else, or perhaps for a few weeks think that you are somehow beating him to the non-delivered paper and spend increasing amounts of time trying to be quicker than you on Sundays.

p.s. if you have already taking D Payne’s suggestion to call the Police, (and they didn’t mention “wasting Police time” during the conversation) please let us know what they suggest from their big book of ways of stopping a newspaper from being stolen. This is thrilling stuff!

If anything, I think Jammer has been awfully restrained in his approach to this. If someone was stealing my shit (particularly after I had nicely asked them not to), I wouldn’t be nearly so charitable.

Any updates, Jammer?

This past weekend, when I was not there, they took all the ads and left the rest of the paper scattered in front of my door.

Ass.

Harsh perhaps, but true. This boils down to a Biff/McFly situation. Some people go through life looking for a nerd they can abuse. Sometimes they work as managers.

I’ve been having this newspaper problem for a while now. So finally I did the stake out and saw the guy doing it. He then took the elevator and walked right through the front lobby with paper-in-hand. It made a nice photo on the building’s security camera. Unfortunately my newspaper is still getting stolen. Next time I’ll demand to press charges!

http://tinyurl.com/2fdn9l