Planning ahead can help deter package thefts this holiday shopping season
Having your holiday shopping buys delivered directly to your home is convenient. But it can also leave you open to theft.
With Cyber Monday shopping in full swing, millions of Americans are expected to ship and receive hundreds of millions of packages between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. The U.S. Postal Service alone is projecting 800 million deliveries. UPS is expecting more than a billion.
Some, unfortunately, will fall into the hands of porch pirates looking for an easy score.
But authorities say consumers can take steps to avoid falling victim by planning ahead.
For Wichita police Sgt. Trevor McDonald, prevention is key.
“Front porches are just a vulnerable location because anyone from the public can walk up to them any day of the week,” said McDonald, who works in the Wichita Police Department’s property crimes section.
“If you’re driving through the neighborhood in ... a decent car and you’re dressed halfway nice, you don’t really stand out.”
Wichita, he said, tends to see an increase in porch thefts between November, when the holiday shopping season gets underway, and January, when people are receiving late gifts or shipping back returns.
It’s a nationwide problem. A 2017 www.insurancequotes.com study found 26 million Americans — around 8 percent — had a holiday package delivery stolen from their front porch or doorstep.
With 165 million people expected to shop over the five-day Thanksgiving weekend this year — about 41% of whom will start their buying online, the National Retail Federation says — there’s no doubt eager thieves will pilfer any unattended deliveries they spot.
“We continue to see that trend that goes up each year because of the amount of gifts or packages ... that are out on the streets,” McDonald said.
Thieves, he said, are often drawn to more affluent areas. But porch pirates strike all around town.
The Wichita Police Department doesn’t specifically track porch theft numbers. They fall under the larger umbrella of larcenies, which also include crimes like shoplifting, car break ins and stealing property from a business but not things like home burglary.
McDonald said usually the department receives around 17,000 larceny reports annually. As of mid-November, there were 14,781 cases, up a fraction of a percent from the same time period last year.
If you’re one of the 68.7 million shoppers hoping to cash in on Cyber Monday deals, or plan to have a package delivery anytime, here are some tips to help deter thefts:
- Schedule deliveries for a time you know you’ll be home.
- Ask a trusted friend or neighbor to watch for your delivery, pick it up and hold it at their home until you can get there.
- Amazon customers: Several cities now have hub lockers and counters where packages can be delivered for free. Using them is easy: Shop online as usual, select a locker or counter location as your delivery address and retrieve your package at your convenience. Wichita has five hub lockers and nine hub counters. You might also have heard of Key by Amazon, a subscription-based service that gives a delivery person access to your home, garage or car. It is available in 50 cities now but not in Wichita.
- Take advantage of text alert services offered by delivery companies so you know when packages arrive.
- Ask delivery companies to hold packages for pick up at their facilities or leave delivery instructions for your carrier to hide items. Or use their rerouting options. UPS My Choice and FedEx Delivery Manager let you send packages en route to other destinations, like Walgreens stores, and customize delivery times. UPS Access Points are businesses that offer secure delivery locations. The Postal Service also offers tracking, package intercept and hold-for-pickup services.
- See if your place of employment will let you have a package delivered there during business hours.
- Ship your packages certified or request that a signature be required for delivery, especially on high-dollar items.
- Many retailers that have local brick-and-mortar stores like Walmart, Target and Best Buy offer free in-store pick up or ship-to-store options for online orders. “It’s safer and, at Best Buy, often the fastest way to receive your order as most are ready in less than one hour,” company spokesman Matthew Smith said.
- Some newer model garage door openers have an option to set a one-time access code that could be given to a delivery company bringing packages you’re expecting.
- If you do pick porch delivery, make sure your home security cameras are working and well-positioned. McDonald’s favorite are doorbell cameras because, at belly level, they get clear recordings of thieves’ faces. Examples include Ring Video Doorbells and the Google Nest Hello Video Doorbell. If you have traditional security camera system, he suggests aiming a camera toward the porch entrance at doorbell-level.
- Don’t ignore electronic notifications saying when and whether your package has been dropped off — especially if you usually use a garage or side door to enter and leave your home.
If you think you’ve had a package stolen:
Call the delivery company. Make sure your package isn’t just late or was dropped off at the wrong address. Some missing packages are a mistake rather than a thief’s handiwork.
Report the theft. Call 911 or your local police station to make a formal report. You’ll likely need a case number to be successful in getting a refund for a missing package.
Contact your credit card company. Some offer theft protection services and refunds if you purchased a missing item with your credit card. But don’t wait too long to call police. Some credit card companies require the theft be reported within a certain number of days to be eligible for a refund.
Turn over evidence. Take any security camera footage or photographs of the theft you have to law enforcement. Ask your neighbors if their cameras caught the thief on film. Use apps like Neighbors by Ring and Nextdoor that let citizens post video footage, warn other residents about package thefts and ask for help identifying thieves.
Have reasonable expectations. In Wichita, conviction rates for porch pirates are “fairly decent” if there’s clear video that shows a thief’s face, McDonald said. “If we have a good face shot of those persons, a lot of times we can ID them and we can go ahead and prosecute them.”
But don’t expect to get your items back.
“Recovery rate is very low on them because those packages don’t last for seconds after people pick them up,” McDonald said. Thieves tend to quickly sell or trade items off.
“I get a lot of phone calls from people that are terribly upset about their packages,” he said.
“For a child that loses out on that very special gift on a birthday or on Christmas, that’s very impactful.”
