The American public is becoming more enamored with arranging home deliveries via their mobile devices than ever before.
In fact, this phenomenon can be proven through the statistics connected to the second biggest sales day of the year, Black Friday.
Americans spent over $7.4 billion shopping online on Black Friday in 2019. This is a 20% increase from the previous year.
On Cyber Monday, which is the 14-day cutoff date before Christmas to ensure that gifts arrive before or on Christmas, its estimated that over $9.4 billion in sales were generated.
Cyber Monday’s 2019 sales statistics were a 18.9% increase from the previous year.
Americans love ordering gifts, receiving, and giving away gifts.
That means the arrival of a new class of opportunistic criminals known as “porch pirates.” They steal packages from doorsteps before recipients can take them.
Porch pirates
In 2019, almost 60 million Americans reported that a porch pirate, also known as porch poachers, stole a package from their front porch or doorstep.
This is an alarming statistic because only 26 million Americans made the same complaint in 2018.
Package delivery thefts are known to happen all the time. For example, more than 90,000 delivery packages are stolen in New York City every day.
However, porch pirate theft activities dramatically spike during the holiday season because of the elevated levels of deliveries.
What is especially unsettling about the porch pirate phenomenon is the fact that sinister, opportunistic vigilance is what makes it possible.
According to UPS, the delivery service delivered more than 750 million packages during the holidays in 2019.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Postal Service delivered about 800 million packages during the same period.
There are a few things that you can do to protect yourself from porch pirates.
- Have packages delivered to your place of work
- Choose delivery to a local drugstore or shipping storefront for signature delivery
- Have Amazon packages send to an Amazon locker, usually at your local Whole Foods
- Require recipient signature for delivery
- Invest in security cameras, motion sensors, and light timers
- Arrange for a neighbor to receive deliveries
Potential porch pirates are watching your premises. So, the perception of counter-vigilance may be the best defense.
