SafeWise Study Reveals 120.5 Million Packages Are Stolen From Porches Each Year. Here's How Americans Are Advised To Deal With This Issue

E-commerce has made shopping and shoplifting easier. Instead of dealing with security staff, sophisticated retail surveillance and a court summons, eagle-eyed thieves now only have to monitor someone’s house for packages and take them when delivered.

Package theft has become so rampant that a recent SafeWise study revealed an estimated 120.5 million parcels are purloined yearly from American households, amounting to $16 billion in theft. Much of the thievery happens around the holiday season, so it’s no wonder 88% of adults are worried about their packages being stolen, according to the home security platform Security.org.

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Caught On Camera

Inner-city homes – such as brownstones – that do not have dedicated secure mail delivery areas are particularly vulnerable. Recently, footage was recorded and displayed on YouTube of someone stealing packages from a postal drop box in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights section. At the same time, many cases have involved thieves being caught stealing by Ring camera doorbells.

“Most package theft is going to be a crime of opportunity,” Ben Stickle, a professor of criminal justice administration at Middle Tennessee State University who has researched package thefts, told The New York Times. “And then, a package being left unguarded, where a thief can see it, is just kind of an open invitation to take it.”

Residents in expensive door attendant buildings have the luxury of having their packages delivered directly to package rooms. However, for those who don’t have such amenities, there are several ways to safeguard the delivery of your packages.

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Ways To Prevent Package Theft

• You can pay for a P.O. Box, mail delivery centers, such as a UPS store or virtual mailboxes, such as iPostal1, which uses Staples and other stores as delivery centers and allows you to log in digitally to view your packages. 

• Use a package locker. If you expect to receive many packages, paying for a locker is well worth it. Amazon has free lockers for its customers, but others charge a fee. 

• Make sure your packages are trackable. Although it’s doubtful that having a bar code on your package will deter thieves from stealing it, it will allow you to know your parcel’s whereabouts and collect it as soon as it is delivered.

• Set up an arrangement for deliveries with a neighbor or friend. Hybrid working means many employees work from home a few days a week. Schedule deliveries when you are at home and agree to collect packages for a friend or neighbor, with an agreement for them to return the favor when you are at work.

• Invest in an exterior thief-proof parcel mailbox. If you have the space, a sturdy, permanent parcel mailbox will give you peace of mind that your packages are not left where they are vulnerable to theft.

• Arrange to have your packages delivered to work. As long as you are not receiving a stocking full of packages every day, drop-offs at work are becoming more popular, circumventing the need to have packages left outside your home.

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