'Tis the Season for Porch Pirates: What Can Be Done To Stop Package Theft?

The holidays are upon us, and that means more than hectic travel plans, family dinners, and cozying up to watch your favorite Christmas movies. Porch pirates are seeing more opportunity than ever on doorsteps and in apartment building lobbies, so online buyers beware.

Porch Pirates Are Growing Bolder, and Some People Are Fleeing

Porch piracy appears to be a growing concern for many people, as The New York Times reported. In some cities where porch piracy is more prevalent than usual — Chicago, New York City, and Philadelphia topped a list provided by SafeWise — residents particularly anxious over potential porch pirates are relocating to upscale digs with a doorman or a package room.

“It’s the type of thing [package rooms] where if you have it and then you don’t have it, you would notice that it’s missing,” Phil Lavoie, chief operating officer of Gotham Organization, said. “It’s something that feels like just an essential convenience, and you can’t really function without it once you have a building that offers that amenity.”

While SafeWise indicated that porch piracy was not necessarily becoming significantly more common (leveling out at 120.5 million packages stolen in 2023 versus 119.5 million in 2022), data from InsuranceQuotes and ValuePenguin suggested it was still a major pain point. InsuranceQuotes reported that 31% of its survey respondents had seen a parcel stolen within the last year, versus 24% in 2023. Additionally, ValuePenguin stated that 41% of its survey respondents had been victimized by porch pirates, up from 35% in 2022.

As for SafeWise, its data suggested that 73% of those polled had lost a package to porch pirates in the past year and that $16 billion in value was lost to package theft in 2023.

What Can You Do To Stop Porch Pirates From Stealing Your Packages?

Aside from relocating to an area with fewer incidents of porch piracy or moving into a building with a doorman and a package room, what exactly can be done to avoid being the target of porch pirates?

According to The New York Times, the city's police department suggests shipping packages to your workplace or asking for a signature upon delivery option. SafeWise stated that those polled in its most recent survey were leaning on increased home security features, such as doorbell cameras, to deter would-be thieves.

Package locker services are also gaining in popularity. Amazon Locker is perhaps the best-known of these. Taking advantage of the service could mean the difference between an order arriving safely and the unfortunate alternative.

Ben Stickle, a professor of criminal justice administration at Middle Tennessee State University who has conducted research on package theft, had his own ideas. Besides having your packages delivered to a willing neighbor or installing a lockable delivery box on your residence, he offered another tip.

"If nothing else, then put a plant or something [on the porch]," he said, “and see if the delivery person will at least put the package behind it. Because if you can’t see it, it’s very unlikely that people are going to walk up and try and take something that they don’t know is there.”