What to Do When a Neighbor Is Taking Your Newspaper

In many highrise buildings where tenants rent out their apartments through AirBnB, the "guests" assume the delivered newspapers left in a common area for paid subscribers is yet another amenity provided by the "host," and feel free to help themselves.

A New York native, I've been reading the paper since i was little. It was never stolen from my doorstep until I moved to San Francisco. After having that happen a few times, I put up a sign over the mailboxes in my building. It said something like "Will the person who's been stealing my New York Times just stop it." The next day, I saw a note in its place telling me to "Stop being so nasty. Go back to NY where nasty people belong". It's not the first or last time I've realized that many people on this coast, even those who steal papers, seem to think all evil resides in NYC.

About 20 years ago, I had an office fronting a downtown street. One day I noticed one of the neighboring business owners filling buckets with my landscape rocks. I confronted him and shamed the heck out of him. "Oh, I thought.....". "You thought what, I put them there for you?" Of course I never went in his coffee shop again. Well, 2 days ago I came face-to-face with him in the supermarket. After all these years, he must have recognized me; he turned bright red and quickly strode away!

Different issue here. I live in an apartment building. My paper always winds up past my neighbor's apartment, kitty corner to mine, not in front of my door. So, he leaves for work very early, and walks past my paper. Why not pick it up and put it at my door? I get up late. It's not a problem, but more of a question. I'd do it if the situation was reversed. And, to all those wondering: I must have the print edition, even though I also get digital. Many articles can be easily missed otherwise. Further, it's a ritual and I enjoy both that and continuing to support high quality journalism.

My neighbor used to take my Sunday NYTimes. I would hear the thud when it landed at my door, and then I would hear my neighbor's door open quietly and close again. I checked a couple of times, and indeed the paper had disappeared. However, since the paper generally arrived VERY early, I usually wasn't up and ready for it anyway. And it was always returned to my door, neatly folded, by the time I wanted it. Can't blame him or her (never saw the perpetrator). They never did the crossword, and other than that the Sunday NY Times is too good to miss.

Since when do newspapers come with your name and address on a label if they are delivered to your door by a carrier instead of coming in the mail and going to your mailbox? Put a camera on your own door and if anyone objects, tell them if they want the camera gone to stop the theft of your personal property from in front of your door. Or install a slot large enough for the newspaper carrier to push the paper through it so it actually lands inside your home. And start shopping for a decent place to live - those kinds of rotten neighbors NEVER move or die.

You name is on it, call the cops as it's theft. They have to act. Don't waste your time with your board or management company, file a case, the police have to act.

Another solution is to READ YOUR PAPER ONLINE. It is much less expensive. As with the NY Times and WALL STREET JOURNAL there are virtual tours of properties and other video articles. The news is also faster and keeps increasing unlike a paper copy.

For a few months at the end of 2012, I was subletting an apartment on a busy avenue in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, where stores and restaurants were on the ground floor. My Times would be stolen from the door by the street nearly every morning, not by neighbors, but by one of the many people passing by, most on their way to the subway. No matter how early I went out, it seemed that the paper was missing most days. I got tired of annoying my carrier and The Times' nice people on the delivery phone number and just said I was on vacation for the rest of my stay in this apartment and bought the paper at the newsstand on my own walk to the subway. I was grateful to be back in my home, where I've had no delivery problems, but I feel more sorry for those whose newspapers are delivered outside their building on busy avenues than for those whose papers are at their apartment door. I don't know what I would do otherwise. I am old enough so that I can concentrate more on the print edition. As the Sunday Review article noted, analog can beat digital for many of us.

my sunday NY paper is regularly stolen. my name is not on it. i live in a neighborhood. there is nothing i can do but request a new paper, which isn't fair to my carrier.

Just get a digital edition - besides it saves having to get rid of all that paper and saves trees !

Get a dummy camera and install it right outside your door. The thief will think you have a camera system and stop taking your paper.

I'm in a single family home and do not have a problem. If I lived in a high rise I would place a note on my newspaper that "you can have the newspaper after I read it." Afterall it would be trash and I would recycle it. That could solve the problem and also being kind to another. I might get a compliant or two as I cut out an article or two or three every once or twice a week...

Or you could simply move to Florida where shooting the thief would be an option...just kidding. But an online version would solve your problem.

What's a newspaper?

My neighbor used to help himself to my Sunday New York Times which really upset me because I wouldn't be able to do the crossword puzzle. I went digital. Never looked back.

Figure out who it is and to get even sign them up for every catalogue you can.

My mother-in-law’s daily paper was stolen frequently after a new neighbor moved in, but he seemed so nice she had a hard time believing he was the newspaper-stealing type... but after a couple weeks, he sheepishly came over with two newspapers and his golden retriever. It turned out the dog had been bringing him other people’s papers and he just assumed they had processed his address transfer quickly, until it suddenly there were two papers on his doorstep every morning!

I had an older neighbor who kept stealing firewood from my wood pile. She lived next door and had plenty of her own so it was quite interesting that she'd steal from us. Cameras proved our point and she returned 9 of her most recent haul of approximately 21 logs taken a week before...the relationship was never quite the same after she realized she was caught on camera.

Many years ago, I found myself with a similar problem, awakening to find my newspaper occasionally missing from my doorstep. I was annoyed, but let it pass. After my third Sunday newspaper was stolen, however, I felt that further action was needed. The following day, I woke up in the wee hours of the morning and waited for the delivery. After the newspaper arrived, I unrolled it, slipped in a personal note to the thief, and re-rolled the paper, putting it back into its plastic wrapping and returned it to the doormat. Later that morning, I noticed that the newspaper was still on the doormat where I had left it: the thief hadn't taken the bait! But after I took the paper back to my apartment and opened it, a handwritten note fluttered out to land on the floor. I'm sorry, it simply said. My newspaper was never stolen again.

We get the electronic editions of our local paper and the Times. Both of us can read it on our kindles wherever we happen to be including the bus even Europe. NYT e-edition is always updating its news. The local paper arrives around 4AM. I would switch to electronic editions and buy a NYT crossword book for the puzzle or there is an app for that too.

I just want to say that I used to get my paper delivered both in the Bronx and in Manhattan in non-doorman buildings and I never had a problem with someone stealing the paper. Most fellow tenants are good people. If I did got my newspaper stolen I would follow the lawyer's advice in the column.

What about calling the police? This is, after all, a theft. Or at least posting a notice saying that you are going to call the police if the behavior doesn't stop.

Catch them in the act and confront them.

Or you could have a newspaper delivered to your neighbors door.

When my California sister's Sunday Times was being taken by a neighbor, the Times had an insert they would place in her paper, a red page that said something like STOP STEALING THIS PAPER. It was hoped the shock, when the perpetrator opened to that page, would discourage him.

I've never encountered a theft from a neighbor's door or my own. Those tenants who must dump trash in bins in each floor's laundry/compactor room have the well-known option of rifling through our neighbor's discards in the hopes of finding treasure. That is perfectly legal since the discards may be viewed as abandoned providing their abandonment reaches past 24 hours. That would give the tenant the opportunity to retrieve a discard made in mistake. My complaint regards food & water deliveries, with large cartons piling up outside an apartment door. Whether it's FreshDirect, Poland Spring, floor mats, your bicycle, your kid's stroller or carriage, pretty artificial plants, boots, etc., the Fire Department of New York considers them ALL a violation of the Fire Code. FDNY firefighters dislike seeing those items in a hallway since they represent potential booby traps that will trip them & tenants in smoke conditions where visibility drops to near zero. The building's owner gets the violation, not the tenant, but your repeated violations and fines paid may cause a landlord to think about getting you out of your apartment. Remember: the building's hallways are not closets or parking space for your personal convenience. When you remove all those impediments in the hallway, you may be saving a life - your own or your neighbor's. Clear the hallways! And don't throw those cartons into the compactor room. Maintainence staff aren't your private trash collectors. They're people.

I think I would laminate and hang where the paper is left a small sign saying, "Please do not steal my newspaper," or, "to the person who steals my newspaper: please stop." The person taking the newspaper has somehow rationalized in his or her mind that what they are doing is not stealing, but it is. When confronted publicly with the reality that taking the newspaper IS, in fact, stealing (in a manner that lets others on the floor know about the thefts as well), it might shame the thief into stopping the practice.

they sell dummy cameras with a blinking light for about $10 or you can get a tiny camera record the person and post fliers saying THIEF with the person’s picture

I have had ongoing problems several different times when I subscribed to (print) newspapers. The first time was in the 1990s, when I lived in a rowhouse. The stealing problem was severe. I finally caught the likely culprit-- an older man, no longer living, who already got one newspaper delivered to his own door. He stopped, but I received no apology. The second time was in a small condo building, late 1990s. This was the one time when the building management was willing to get involved. One memo on the management letterhead was enough to stop the stealing this time. The third time was in the mid-2000s, and I will name the condo: McLean Gardens. The stealing was also severe. It did not completely stop until the owner I suspected was doing it sold and moved. The McLean Gardens management asked me whether I was causing the problem by having a dog or complaining about someone else's. In both cases the answer was no. I did not know either this neighbor or the neighbor referred to in my first story above. As to the newspapers having the subscriber's name and address on a label: what? No newspaper I've ever received from the 1960s through 2013, had my name or address on it. I've seen this referred to before in the Times, and I never know what the writer is talking about.

You don't need a security system -- if you know what time the paper comes, and roughly what time it goes missing, put your Iphone up to the peephole and wait. And film the events as they transpire. "Then" send the video to the managment company and tell them to begin eviction proceedings against the neighbor. That should do it.

The management shouldn't be the first line of defense. Neighbors should be able to play like adults and at least try to solve their differences. There's no indication that the letter writer has tried anything. If he has and nothing has worked, then, and o oh then should management step in.

Consider having the paper delivered with your mail if it's not important to have it first thing in the morning. I didn't realize that some papers allow delivery by post in addition to the standard carrier delivery. Even though I now collect my paper at night with my mail, I much prefer this than dealing with the missing paper and being left to wonder if it was just a missed delivery or someone stole the paper.

My grandfather had a newspaper stealing neighbor a few years back and he solved the problem without anything as fancy (or expensive) as a hallway camera, He strongly suspected the culprit was the old lady across the hall, but he had no proof. When the newspaper arrived one Sunday morning, he tied fishing string around the paper and took a seat on his recliner with the other end end of the string in his hand. When he heard the neighbor's door open and felt a pull on the fishing string - he gave it an enormous yank, while running to the door. He saw the old lady across the hall wearing her house coat and looking completely flustered, before she darted back inside her apartment (without the newspaper). I never saw my grandfather as elated as when he was telling this story.

Some places have different arrangements. The newspapers are put in a pile on a table in the lobby, and each subscriber is supposed to take one. In such buildings, the early bird does indeed get the worm.

I don't steal, but I would be dismayed if my management company installed hallway cameras because another person had trouble with her newspaper delivery. Here are some empowering suggestions the subscriber could take without asking for help from management: Learn what time your paper is delivered, and be awake at that time to open the door and take it in, so it is not stolen. Introduce yourself to the delivery person, who is likely the same person every day and ask them to call/text you when they are en route, or to knock on the door when the paper comes. (They don't have to wait for you to open.) A small tip could help build a relationship with that person, who is likely aware of who might be up at that hour and stealing newspapers. An ally can help. Write a note, and insert it in with your newspaper that you leave outside: "This is my property, and if it continues being taken, you are on notice that I am watching and will not tolerate these thefts." Deterrence often works, and this way, you don't wrongly send a note to a neighbor/suspect, but whomever reads it, if they swipe your paper, will get the message. Enlist the help of the neighbors. If the person taking the papers is approached in this manner, "Some of us have had our property stolen. If you see someone taking my paper, could you please let me know?" they might behave themselves. Note: don't just tell the "suspects" this, but actually knock on all your nearby neighbors' doors to enlist their help. Hth!

Try a digital subscription which is how I read The Times every day; or offer to buy a digital gift subscription for the Holidays for your neighbor.

I see the NYTimes resisted the temptation to tout their digital subscription as a solution.

Get an on-line subscription.

A camera security system can be a significant expense depending on how complete the coverage is intended. Placement of the cameras is restricted as none may look into an apartment when the door is opened. Many buildings, especially those with hallway carpeting, prohibit door mats and remove the offending items without notice.

Just as a point of information, doormats aren't actually permitted in hallways - fire regulations.