It’s the most plunder-ful time of the year.
The annual influx of holiday parcels might seem like a cause for celebration. However, experts warn gift recipients to remain extra vigilant this Christmas: A recent survey found that a staggering 210 million packages vanished from porches across the US over the past 12 months.
“Package theft is a crime of opportunity,” said Dr. Ben Stickle, a criminal justice and theft expert at home security website Safewise, which conducted the research. “As the Christmas gift season gets into full swing, there will be a significant increase in packages on a porch.”
Safewise found that a mind-boggling 64.1% of Americans have been victims of package theft in the last year — a 36% increase from the prior year, according to the survey — and 53.5% had multiple parcels snatched during that period.
To gauge how rampant package pilfering runs in the US, Safewise surveyed 1,000 Americans about their “personal run-ins with dastardly porch pirates,” per the site.
They then ranked the frequency of thefts according to city by analyzing 2020 FBI larceny-theft data from metro areas across the country. Finally, the safety mavens compared those stats against “Google Trends data in areas with the highest number of searches for ‘missing package’ and ‘stolen package,'” according to the site.
In terms of cities with the highest likelihood of package jacking, Denver, Colorado, came in first, ending San Francisco’s three-year run at the top of the robbery rankings. The city by the bay was demoted to second, followed by Salt Lake City, Utah, in third and Seattle, Washington, in fourth place. The top 10 list was rounded out by San Antonio, Texas; Austin, Texas; Portland, Oregon; Greenville, South Carolina; Raleigh, North Carolina; and Hartford, Connecticut.
Perhaps surprisingly, absent from the rankings was New York City, where doorstep lootings have soared during the coronavirus pandemic. Texas was the only state to boast multiple metropolises on the list.
And it seems porch piracy didn’t affect all courier companies equally. Amazon deliveries constituted a whopping 53.9% of thefts, with FedEx coming in a distant second with 15.5% of parcels and UPS in third with 11%. Meanwhile, more than half of all the swiped parcels are valued at between $50 and $200.
Experts attribute the spike in thievery to the fact that people are increasingly shopping from home amid the COVID-19 crisis. Per the same survey, 39% of respondents claim “they have packages delivered several times a week (up 12 points from last year).” Meanwhile, “72% of Americans say the COVID-19 pandemic has made them more concerned about porch piracy (up 9 points from last year),” according to the study.
Stickle added that Christmastime is also to blame for surging thefts, as “people are busier this time of year and have their routine shifted as they may work later.” They also tend to “spend more time away from home shopping or visiting with family and friends, so packages are left sitting exposed on the porch for longer,” he said.
“Finally, while the volume of packages has increased, it’s likely the value of packages has increased as well, making numerous targets even more tempting,” the theft authority explained. “All of this adds up to easy targets for thieves.”
Stickle added that package pillaging is particularly problematic because it’s a “low-entry crime,” meaning that “there are no special skills needed to walk up a driveway and steal a package.
“The risk is very low as well, and punishment, even if caught, minimal,” he lamented.
People can potentially help prevent package poachers by installing doorbell cameras with two-way audio, motion sensors and other security measures. Even with the most airtight pirate-repelling initiatives, however, theft is sometimes unavoidable. In those instances, Safewise advises people to file a police report — with security footage, if possible — and to contact both the parcel’s sender and the carriers.