TikToker reveals ‘ultimate’ trick for stopping thieves

A TikTok user is blowing minds with their trick for stopping porch pirates from stealing packages.

The life hack comes courtesy of a popular TikTok page, Impossible Science. It joins a long line of delivery-based tricks to go viral on the app — including how to get a discount when ordering McDonald’s and how to get bigger tips when working for DoorDash or Uber Eats.

Impossible Science’s trick, however, is much more specific. It’s also much more scientific — so much so that some users (and this editor, honestly) can barely understand how it works.

“Here’s the ultimate way to prevent porch pirates,” the video’s host says. “Unite science and magic.”

In the clip, the host explains how it’s possible to rig a container outside your doorstep so it actually looks like a table. To do that, all you need is a mirror.

The host goes on to explain that, under the container, there’s a mirror angled at 45 degrees, reflecting the opposite side of the doorstep so that it looks like there’s nothing under the top of the container. In reality, there’s plenty of space for packages.

On the top of the container, the Impossible Science team wrote a message asking delivery workers to place packages inside the compartment — which, thanks to the mirror, isn’t visible from the road. So in theory, a porch pirate browsing the neighbourhood for items to steal might just skip over that house entirely.

Many TikTok users were dumbfounded by the hack, which, despite its simplicity, sounds like it takes a Ph.D. in physics to pull off.

“This broke my brain,” one user wrote.

Others, meanwhile, criticised the trick. Some users said that by showing the hack to its two million TikTok followers, Impossible Science had “ruined” it.

“All the porch pirates on TikTok laughing,” one user joked.

“Well now they know,” another added.