The popularity of online shopping has brought a dramatic increase in the number of packages delivered by companies such as UPS and Federal Express. The popularity of online shopping has also resulted in a new term entering the lexicon in recent years, namely, “porch pirate,” which is the name given to criminals who cruise through neighborhoods looking for packages to steal that have been left on the doorsteps of homes by delivery services.
Recently there has been a dramatic increase in the theft of AT&T iPhones in New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Michigan, Georgia, Florida and Texas here porch pirates are showing up within minutes of a delivery to snatch the phones. One problem is that while Verizon and T-Mobile require signatures for cell phone deliveries, AT&T generally does not. Making the problem worse is that recently when some porch pirates were arrested following the theft of cell phones from porches in Texas, they were found to have AT&T tracking numbers. As of this time, it is not known how they or other porch pirates are obtaining this information.
TIPS
In regard to protecting yourself from porch pirates generally, if you are not going to be home at the expected time of a delivery, an easy solution is to either have the package delivered to your place of work or have a neighbor who will be home be on the lookout for deliveries to your home. You also can request that all deliveries require a signature, although this can slow down the delivery process if you aren’t home and end up requiring you to drive to a distribution center if repeated attempts at delivery are thwarted because no one is home to sign for the package.
Another option for protecting yourself is renting a locker at a local package receiving center. These can be found in most big cities. One of the companies that provide this service in New York City is https://www.golocker.com/ You also can rent an Amazon Locker where your Amazon deliveries can be sent. https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=GXCWH4CXLKJD8Z52
Amazon Prime also offers Key In-Garage Delivery which is a simple and secure way to have Amazon deliveries delivered to your garage if you are not home. Here is a link with more information https://www.amazon.ca/key-delivery
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