‘Porch piracy’ is a somewhat amusing term we use to describe a very serious crime. It is a crime with far reaching implications and one involving an estimated 260 million packages annually. The big question is, why? Above the simple realization that crime is crime, what motivates people to steal packages off porches? And more importantly, what can you and I do about it?

The crime of porch piracy is simple enough. Criminals wander through neighborhoods (sometimes they actually follow delivery trucks) looking for exposed packages on front porches. An unattended package is an open invitation to walk up, swipe it, and walk away. It only takes an experienced thief seconds to pull off the crime and escape without anyone being the wiser.

Criminals Are Opportunists

So why do criminal steel packages? If nothing else, criminals of all sorts are opportunists. Their occupation involves looking for opportunities to strike. When those opportunities present themselves, a successful criminal will pounce. That tells us something particularly important about porch piracy: it is so pervasive because there are far too many opportunities to pull it off.

Put yourself in the criminal’s shoes. Try to get inside his mind. You want a quick score for easy money, right? So you look for that kind of opportunity. You look for a crime that is easy to pull off, potentially very profitable, and with very low risk of getting caught. Porch piracy ticks all three boxes.

The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that American consumers spent just over $284 billion shopping online in the third quarter of 2023. That represents billions of packages delivered to front doors across the country. So in addition to porch piracy being easy to pull off, there is no shortage of targets to choose from. Opportunistic criminals have every opportunity to commit porch piracy and get away with it.

What Consumers Can Do About It

As for what you and I can do about it, there are no secrets here. Countless blog posts describing various tactics for fighting porch piracy have been published over the years. But all the strategies bear repeating for the simple fact that people don’t appear to be getting the message. So once again, here is what you can do to prevent porch piracy:

1. Get With Your Neighbors

If you and your neighbors are on different schedules, you can work together to protect one another’s packages. Have your neighbor pick up your packages when you are not home and vice versa. Perhaps there is one neighbor on your street willing to be the central collection point for packages while everyone else is at work.

The key to working with neighbors is taking advantage of real-time notifications. Have delivery notifications sent directly to your phone and email inbox. As soon as one comes in, contact the neighbor so that they can go collect your package.

2. Send Deliveries to Package Lockers

If you live in or near a major urban center, the chances are pretty good that there is a package delivery locker location somewhere near you. Instead of deliveries coming directly to your house, they are sent to the locker location. You stop by at the end of the day and retrieve your packages from a securely locked location.

If you don’t like the idea of traveling to a locker location, you can purchase your own locker. Bolt it to the front porch or the wall and then provide the delivery company with a one-time passcode to get in.

3. Have the Packages Left Indoors

If you have a smart lock installed on your front door, you have a built-in solution to package piracy: unlocking the door so that delivery drivers can leave packages inside. You simply inform the delivery company of your plan so that the driver can send you a quick message when he arrives. You unlock the door, packages are left inside, and you lock up as the driver leaves. Problem solved.

4. Reschedule Your Deliveries

It is becoming more common for online retailers to allow some flexibility with shipping. One particular site I’m thinking of gives customers the opportunity to choose their delivery dates. So if the default date doesn’t work for you, reschedule for a day you know you will be home.

If You Do Have a Package Stolen

You can take all the precautions in the world and still have a package stolen from time to time. What then? Vivint Home Security recommends following a pretty straightforward course of action. Here is what they say you should do:

1. Check with your neighbors to see if one of them picked up your package to hold it for you until you get home.
2. If none of your neighbors have the package, file a police report. You will need the report as you proceed to the third step.
3. Contact the retailer to inform them of the theft. If the package was insured, you might be able to get a replacement.

After the incident is over and done with, it’s time to start working on preventative measures. What went wrong this time? What can you do to make sure that the same mistakes are not repeated? As with any crime, preventing porch piracy is all about paying attention to the details that led up to the crime and then correcting any deficiencies that made the crime possible to commit.

They Do It Because They Can

When you boil porch piracy down to its simplest form you realize that porch pirates do what they do because they can. They are pure opportunists in every sense of the term. They succeed because consumers give them plenty of easy opportunities to steal.

Take away those opportunities and porch pirates no longer have as many targets to go after. Will it turn them into honest citizens? Probably not. But at least your packages will not be stolen from off your porch. Here’s guessing you’ll enjoy online shopping a lot more as a result.