Porch Piracy Hits National Record High

More people are ordering online more than ever before.

The economy is not in a good place.

Put these two together and you have a rise in porch pirate crime.

A recent survey found that a staggering 210 million packages vanished from porches across the US over the past 12 months.

Usually - in most cases - it is someone in your own neighborhood. Most porch thieves only steal from places they know well.

“Package theft is a crime of opportunity,” said Dr. Ben Stickle, a criminal justice and theft expert at home security website Safewise, which conducted the research. “As the Christmas gift season gets into full swing, there will be a significant increase in packages on a porch.” (NY Post)

Safewise found that 64.1% of Americans claim that they have been victims of package theft in the last year.

That is a big percentage. It's also a 36% increase from the prior year, according to the survey. Those victims have been robbed more than once. 53.5% had multiple parcels snatched during that period.

Porch piracy is nothing new. But studies do show that there has been a big jump in 2021.

More than 200 million packages have been reported stolen this year and that represents a 36% increase over 2020. Well over one-half of Americans have reported at least one package being heisted. (NY Post).

You can't always be home when the package arrives. But there are things you can do, by working with whoever is delivering to you, to reduce your chances of getting robbed.

HERE ARE SOME TIPS ON HOW TO AVOID BEING A VICTIM OF PORCH PIRATES.

Amazon has locker delivery or other similar options through other retailers or delivery services. You can tell them to keep it and YOU will go pick it up at their location. The post office will do this too as well as UPS.

Don't have the local store deliver to you. Use curb-side pickup.

Have your packages delivered to your work address, if possible.

Are your neighbors home? Have the package delivered to their place.

Invent clever ways to hide your package OFF PORCH!

Get one of those camera doorbells that pings your phone when someone is near.