#219 Building Trust in a Tech-Driven Neighborhood: The Power of Ring Cameras

Ever had a package disappear from your doorstep? It happened to me, which got me thinking about how we handle neighborly etiquette in today’s tech-driven world. With delivery drivers often skipping the doorbell, it’s easy to miss when a package arrives. I share a story about a mix-up with a package pickup and a simple solution: using the Ring camera’s recording feature to communicate intentions and avoid confusion. With tools like this, we can turn potential issues into chances to build trust and transparency with our neighbors.

Toward the end of the show, I talk about the edited audio versions of the podcast and the unedited versions available on YouTube. Whether you’re walking the dog or catching up on chores, the audio format is made to fit your day. Thank you for tuning in and for your feedback—it means a lot. I’m looking forward to our next conversation.

Chapters

• 0:05 Neighborly Ring Etiquette Suggestions
• 10:17 Podcast Host Signs Off

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:05

okay, so my headphones on or my earbuds, what do you want to call them? So I want to talk about ring etiquette for just a second, a little bit more than a second. But I saw a UPS truck parked across the street last night Someone's getting a package. Didn't think much about it and so this morning I don't know why I thought about it. And so this morning I don't know why I thought about it, but I thought I should check my ring camera on my phone to see if that was for us. So I got on.

Speaker 1: 1:01

The ring app went to yesterday night. Last evening about 5 o'clock, 5.15, something like that. Sure enough, ups guy had walked up to our house and dropped off a package and as he walked away he yelled out UPS dropped off a package and as he walked away he yelled out ubs. Now I'm not. I wish they would ring the doorbell. So when and my ring did make its little funny sound on my phone, I just didn't pay any attention to it because it goes off so much anymore. I just get tired of looking at it because it's usually nothing more than a car going by or someone walking on the sidewalk. So I didn't look. It did go off yesterday and I didn't pay attention to it. So anyway, I just wish, uh, if I was a UPS driver, I think I would ring the doorbell just to make sure everybody knows that I'm there and that I left a package. Okay, even though Ring will notify you if you have it set up on your phone, which most people do so when I ever get to talk and I start yawning. I don't know why that is so.

Speaker 1: 2:24

This morning I looked on the like. I said looked on ring, and there was the eps driver leaving a package. Oh okay. But I saw another motion detection a little bit later. Uh, so I looked at it and it was about seven o'clock and it was this lady walking up our uh site not sidewalk, but up the uh steps to our house. She gets up to the porch, leans over, grabs the package, doesn't grab it dummy, just picks it up, turns around, walks back down the steps and down the sidewalk until it was out of view from my camera. So I'm instantly thinking that we just got ripped off, that the porch pirate came. Have no idea who this was, except when I got to looking at it it looked like our neighbor. Kind of not, but kind of so.

Speaker 1: 3:41

So here's the back story there. So our neighbor has the UPS and the post office have been delivering a lot of her mail to our house with our address on the envelopes or boxes. Not sure how that happened, why that's happening, but anyway. So we take the envelopes or boxes not sure how that happened, why that's happening, but anyway. So we take the mail in the boxes and we go over to her house and if she's not there, she we leave them in the mailbox or on on the front steps there, and I guess I should be taking my own advice here in just a second. So I guess that's what happened this time.

Speaker 1: 4:17

Uh ups came by, left a package at our front door, thinking he was delivering it to the right place based on the address. I'm sure it was the right address, but it was really meant for our neighbor. So anyway, that's how I'm sure they figured out. Uh ups probably sent a picture of the package being dropped off as a matter of fact, I know they did, cause I saw him take a picture on the video from ring. Uh, they realized that that was their package. Um came over, picked it up, walked away.

Speaker 1: 4:52

Okay, now here's what. Here's the suggestion I want to make to everyone out there with a ring doorbell, if you're doing a good deed, or if something like that happened, where a package got delivered to your neighbor's house and you realize this is the case, go over, pick up your package, go ahead, because it's yours. But also, either ring the doorbell or, chances are, ring is already recording you as you walked up to the front of the house, so you could just talk to the ring device and say hey, this is Scott, I had a package delivered to you guys by mistake and I'm coming by to pick it up. Um, have a great day. Uh, call me if you need anything and then walk away instead of.

Speaker 1: 5:51

And so when you don't do that, it kind of looks real suspicious. You know, and you're walking up to the house, you pick up the package and you walk away, so covert. Maybe some other neighbors are seeing what's going on and they're thinking that you're taking the other person's package. Is that getting confusing? Anyway, that's what I would do, just, and so I'm suggesting to everyone out there with the ring camera if you go to somebody's house, because you gotta. Uh like, like one time a neighbor had their trash can out. They were on vacation and it didn't get taken in. So I walked over there and I uh, grabbed their trash can and pulled it up to the house for him. What I should have done, because I know ring caught that it was just hey, this Scott just wanted to, you know, give you a helping hand while you're away, bringing up your trash can. Mystery solved. Chances are they would have figured that out anyway, but it clears everything up.

Speaker 1: 6:49

We've got to realize these things are recording and so use this to our advantage to communicate with each other, instead of thinking we're going to sneak up, get our package that's rightfully ours, and then walk away and hope nobody sees, or hope I don't have to talk to anybody, just own it. Just say, hey, this guy, I'm coming, you know, all right, your name. Hey, I'm coming by to pick up the package. Don't want to bother you. If you have any questions, call me, you know, anyway we'll see, uh, see you later and walk away. There you go. So there's my suggestion, ring.

Speaker 1: 7:32

This is this is totally different from a porch pirate. We're not talking about stealing theft, we're not talking about any of that kind of stuff. We're just talking about if you come up to a person's house because Maybe you brought a shovel and you want to bring it back and it doesn't look like their home. So you just leave the shovel on the front porch. That's cool. But chances are they have a ring or some blink or something and just say you don't even have to ring the doorbell, or you could, and then that would alert them, wherever they are, that you're on the front porch leaving a shovel or whatever, and just talk to them and they might want to talk back to you because you can On your iPhone or Android, I guess you can talk to the person that's at your front door without coming to your front door. You can be halfway around the world and still talk to them. So anyway, just a little etiquette there with the ring, don't try to don't come. If you come into somebody's house and don't say anything and just kind of come up and go away, looks very suspicious and then on the person watching the video, like me this morning, it just looks funny.

Speaker 1: 8:44

I don't know. What are your thoughts? What am I on track here? Or Would you do what I am suggesting we do? Is it that big a deal? Maybe it's not. Anyway, leave your comments. Leave a comment. Send me an email, scott, it's got Townsend dot infofo. Uh, subscribe like, share all that stuff. Um, yeah, so for scott townsend, no, not for scott townsend, for you, and I'm not sure what I'm trying to say anyway.

Speaker 1: 9:25

Oh, another thing I'm doing is I'm posting unedited videos. Speaking of unedited, posting unedited videos to the YouTube channel and then posting edited content on the Buzzsprout podcast platform, which pushes this podcast out to Apple, spotify, wherever you get your iTunes, wherever you get your podcasts. So I'm going to post the edited version there and then I'm going to just let it all hang out on the video. Um, because it takes a long time to edit a video and I'm kind of tired of that right now. I might get back to it later, but anyway, I'm just going to post it whatever.

Speaker 1: 10:17

Post all the flaws, mistakes, it's it. I'm not trying to make it pretty, you know. If you want to watch it, fine, if not, that's great. But you know, most part I'm really uh, doubling down on people listening, you know, while you're walking your dog, doing the dishes at the gym, driving On a walk, whatever. I think this is the way to. This is the more popular way to digest this show, as most podcasts. So, anyway, I hope you guys have a great day. Let me know what you think about what we talked about today. This is Scott Townsend. Thanks for listening to the Scott Townsend Show. Have a great day. Everything's going to be all right and we'll talk to you later, and I'm going to stop recording.