Thwarting ‘porch pirates’ this holiday season

MOSES LAKE — ’Tis the season to give and receive.

With the rise in e-commerce, it’s also a time when packages ordered or sent land on porches across the country and when thieves, dubbed “porch pirates,” can strike, stealing unguarded and unattended boxes and maybe ruining holidays.

“At this time of year, it’s pretty popular,” said Moses Lake Police Department spokesman Capt. Dave Sands. “We urge folks who order online to take precautions.”

“I don’t know the dollar figure, but four in 10 Americans have reported having a package stolen,” said Kenton Brine, president of the NW Insurance Council in Seattle.

There are a number of ways people can keep their delivered mail safe, Brine said, varying from things as simple as having a trusted neighbor pick up and hold packages if you’re not home, to having packages delivered to a business address.

He also said people should get tracking numbers and sign up for either email or text alerts to let them know where their packages are and when they have been delivered.

Brine also said security cameras, or the installation of a smart doorbell like the Ring or Amazon’s Nest Hello, will record any action and may help law enforcement find and arrest any package thieves.

“There’s a high-tech way to do it, but a low-tech way as well,” he said.

Brine said anyone buying online should familiarize themselves with both the merchant’s and their credit card’s claims policies. Many vendors, as well as PayPal and Venmo, offer purchase protection for packages that are damaged, stolen or go missing in the mail.

If the item is expensive enough, Brine said it will be covered by renter’s or homeowner’s insurance. However, purchasers will need to check their deductible, which will be higher in the case of homeowner’s insurance.

“If you have a business address, that’s an other alternative, or if the home is more remote, a post office box,” Brine said. “Not all solutions will work for everybody, but there are a lot of options available to help thwart porch pirates.”

Lisa Castro, manager of The UPS Store in Moses Lake, has a couple of those options. People can rent a mailbox and receive both the mail and their packages in a secure place, she said, or they can set up a an account with UPS and have a package redirected to a UPS Access Point — a retail outlet, often a gas station, convenience store or UPS Store itself — where the package will be kept for pickup.

“So it doesn’t get landed on their porch,” Castro said. “The biggest thing is we’re helping keep the mail off of their porches.”

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at [email protected].