3 Tips to Protect Your Holiday Packages from Porch Thieves
- By Sydny Shepard
- Dec 02, 2015
3 Tips to Protect Your Holiday Packages from Porch Thieves
Ensure that your front porch isn’t a victim of “porch piracy” with these simple tips.
It is becoming an all too familiar sight: thieves stealing packages right off the porches of homes in neighborhoods. Authorities are calling the trend “porch piracy” and say it is happening more and more this time of year in conjunction with the rise of online sales during the Holiday season.
In order to protect your home from these package pirates, follow these tips we’ve assembled for you.
Require a signature
Ask the shipping company to require a signature upon delivery when receiving a package. This ensures that the package will be passed directly from the postman to you. While it is difficult to schedule a time to receive a package when the majority of Americans are working during the drop-off time, it is worth it to not let the postman simply leave the box on your front step.
If you are not able to be home to sign for the package, most third-party shippers will leave the box at a local store if it was unable to be signed for three times in a row. While this errand to the local shipping shop may seem unnecessary, you’ll be thanking yourself for not having to go through the headache of reporting a package stolen.
Send it to your office
If you work in an office building that allows you to receive personal packages, have it sent there instead of your home. Boxes that are dropped off at office buildings are often seen the minute that they arrive and are distributed almost immediately. You’ll have a higher chance of receiving your box when it hasn’t been sitting unattended for multiple hours outside your front door.
This option is especially great for those who live in apartment complexes. Often, apartments do not have anything sitting in front of the door that could obscure a package. While postmen are taught to try to hide the package from plain view, it is hard to do when there isn’t anything in front of your door besides a shared hallway.
Install a security camera
If you know you won’t be home to sign for a package and it isn’t an option to send it to your office building, install a camera on your front porch that can be your eyes for you. Place the camera at an angle so that it can capture as much of your front porch as possible. If you do get a package pirate on your stoop, you can easily identify who the culprit is and turn the footage over to the police.
These days, a lot of security cameras come with integrated platforms that allow you to monitor your home from a remote location. When your package has shipped, ask the shipping agency to send you mobile notifications when your package has been delivered, then you can check your camera from wherever you are to ensure the package is really there. After that, you can peek in on your package throughout the day to make sure it hasn’t been taken. If it has, you can quickly call authorities and the chance of getting your box back is much higher.
Bonus: Insure your items
Many online retailers this Cyber Monday have offered buyers free shipping this year, so use the money you saved on shipping to insure your bigger purchases. That extra money spent on insurance will look like a really good idea if you, unfortunately, are visited by porch pirate.
About the Author
Sydny Shepard is the Executive Editor of Campus Security & Life Safety.