In this 2009 file photograph, a FedEx driver delivers a package deal within the Queens part of New York.
Mark Lennihan/AP
cover caption
toggle caption
Mark Lennihan/AP
As the vacation season brings the enjoyment of giving, it additionally brings thieves trying to steal your presents.
More than 120 million packages have been stolen throughout the U.S. in 2023, in keeping with an evaluation by SafeWise, a security and safety analysis group. Local officers and retailers are warning Americans to stay vigilant so they won’t be a sufferer of a porch pirate, somebody who steals packages from an individual’s house.
Some states, together with Florida, have carried out harsher penalties for these discovered criminally answerable for porch piracy and package deal theft. And a bipartisan invoice was launched within the U.S. House of Representatives over the summer time that, if enacted, would permit federal penalties for postal mail theft to be utilized to package deal theft delivered by non-public carriers like Amazon.
Here are some steps you possibly can take to guard your packages this season and what to do in case your package deal is stolen.
Brands and electronics are common targets
Be cautious when ordering common manufacturers and see should you can have model objects shipped in packaging that hides the label. Amazon, for instance, has an choice that permits prospects to ship some objects in packaging that locations their package deal inside an everyday field.
Package theft is usually a “crime of alternative” and thieves search for packages left within the open the place individuals stroll or drive, stated Ben Stickle, a felony justice administration professor at Middle Tennessee State University.
“Brands on containers make targets extra tempting because it supplies clues to what might be inside,” in keeping with Stickle, who can also be a former police officer. “Also, lithium ion batteries require a big delivery label (for security causes) that lets thieves know there’s doubtless a beneficial digital merchandise inside.”
Some of the commonest objects that thieves wish to steal are electronics, sneakers and different costly objects, he stated. The majority of packages stolen in 2023 have been delivered by Amazon and the U.S. Postal Service, in keeping with SafeWise.
Security is vital to prevention
There are a number of steps you possibly can take to restrict the probabilities of your package deal being stolen, resembling having it “delivered to a neighbor or member of the family who’s house,” Stickle stated.
You can even let supply drivers know forward of time the place to depart your package deal. Amazon recommends prospects give a particular location to ship the package deal — one the place it may be hidden from view.
Security consultants say that having a doorbell digital camera or video surveillance system that information a thief in actual time may help deter thieves — they will additionally make it simpler for regulation enforcement to establish them and hopefully result in an arrest. Motion sensors that set off lights when somebody steps onto your property and visual safety cameras can even assist deter thieves.
Additional steps you possibly can take in keeping with Stickle and others embrace requiring a signature when your package deal is delivered or having your objects shipped to an alternate location — like your job, a parcel locker or retailer. You can even have your packages held with the supply service and scheduled for supply when you can be house.
Using a “porch pirate bag,” a big container usually with a lock during which your package deal might be positioned inside, is another choice, says home-security firm ADT. Another choice is to let Amazon ship your package deal straight inside your storage — a service accessible to Prime subscribers in choose places.
If you catch somebody stealing your package deal, don’t get bodily
If you catch somebody within the act of stealing your package deal, yelling or telling them to cease, whether or not in individual or by a doorbell digital camera, might cease them, Stickle says. However, he warned, don’t get bodily concerned.
“Call the police with particulars,” Stickle stated.
If you aren’t house when your package deal is stolen, file a police report and report the package deal stolen to the service in addition to the seller.
And whereas some individuals might attempt to trick a porch pirate to catch them, keep in mind “the primary objective is to be sure that the objects you order truly make it inside your house,” ADT says.
