Tens of millions of Americans have had packages stolen from their front doors by “porch pirates” this yr and one retired police officer told Fox News Digital the perfect solutions to be sure that your holiday gifts make it safely into your own home.
Dennis Farris, who served as a police officer in Austin, Texas, for 25 years and serves now as president of the Austin Police Retired Officer’s Association, told Fox News Digital that the primary strategy to deter porch pirates is the “Amazon Key” system, which allows an Amazon delivery person to drop a package contained in the garage.
“It’s a one time code and it alerts you when the garage doors open and alerts you when the garage doors closed,” Farris said. “It only works one time after which the subsequent time it might be a unique code so it’s not just like the guy that’s delivering your package could just come back.”
Amazon’s in-garage delivery process is obtainable to Prime members and could be arrange using the Amazon app.
Farris acknowledged that many persons are “leery” of providing a stranger with access to their garage and suggested other ways to secure packages, including a lockbox on the front porch with a one-time access code that the shopper can provide to the delivery service.
“Most individuals get packages which are relatively small so you possibly can get a small lockable box that you would placed on your front porch and put a mix lock on it and within the delivery instructions you possibly can say there’s a lock box on the front porch and put down the mix,” Farris said. “That’s labor intensive nevertheless it’s something to maintain your stuff secure. That’s one in every of the ways to do it.”
Farris also suggested that Americans who’re concerned about porch pirates utilize Amazon lockers that the corporate provides at local establishments like 7-11.
“The one foolproof strategy to keep your packages from getting stolen is using a secondary location that you might have to have a code to open the locker of,” Farris said. “That’s realistically the one way to not get your stuff stolen.”
Farris advisable that anyone who can’t or doesn’t wish to use those options should not less than consider a Ring doorbell camera or some form of video surveillance on their front porches so they’ll not less than “have an idea” of who did it if a package is stolen.
“The opposite thing is just don’t leave your packages,” Farris said. “Attempt to schedule your packages to be delivered for those who can later within the afternoon while you’re going to be home or ask the delivery driver to cover the package somewhere in your porch.”
An estimated 260 million delivered packages have been stolen over the past yr, in accordance with a study from Safewise, in comparison with an estimated 210 million the previous yr.
“It happens in Austin on a regular basis,” Farris said about porch pirates. “You hear about it on a regular basis, it’s develop into commonplace. Persons are almost becoming numb to it. It’s hard to catch these people. You must catch them within the act. These days with FedEx and UPS and Amazon you possibly can track the packages on the app especially in the event that they’re gonna be ordering stuff and track the package.”
The study ranked Austin as town with the third-highest variety of package thefts behind San Francisco, California, and Seattle, Washington.
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“Heart sunk, fell into my stomach, and I used to be like, ‘oh man, someone took my package,’” Tacoma, Washington resident Andres Reyes told KCPQ-TV after being the victim of porch pirates last week in an incident caught on his Ring doorbell camera.
“It seems like I used to be violated.”
The highest three cities where packages are stolen the least were Miami, Florida; Tampa, Florida; and Raleigh, North Carolina.
Tens of millions of Americans have had packages stolen from their front doors by “porch pirates” this yr and one retired police officer told Fox News Digital the perfect solutions to be sure that your holiday gifts make it safely into your own home.
Dennis Farris, who served as a police officer in Austin, Texas, for 25 years and serves now as president of the Austin Police Retired Officer’s Association, told Fox News Digital that the primary strategy to deter porch pirates is the “Amazon Key” system, which allows an Amazon delivery person to drop a package contained in the garage.
“It’s a one time code and it alerts you when the garage doors open and alerts you when the garage doors closed,” Farris said. “It only works one time after which the subsequent time it might be a unique code so it’s not just like the guy that’s delivering your package could just come back.”
Amazon’s in-garage delivery process is obtainable to Prime members and could be arrange using the Amazon app.
Farris acknowledged that many persons are “leery” of providing a stranger with access to their garage and suggested other ways to secure packages, including a lockbox on the front porch with a one-time access code that the shopper can provide to the delivery service.
“Most individuals get packages which are relatively small so you possibly can get a small lockable box that you would placed on your front porch and put a mix lock on it and within the delivery instructions you possibly can say there’s a lock box on the front porch and put down the mix,” Farris said. “That’s labor intensive nevertheless it’s something to maintain your stuff secure. That’s one in every of the ways to do it.”
Farris also suggested that Americans who’re concerned about porch pirates utilize Amazon lockers that the corporate provides at local establishments like 7-11.
“The one foolproof strategy to keep your packages from getting stolen is using a secondary location that you might have to have a code to open the locker of,” Farris said. “That’s realistically the one way to not get your stuff stolen.”
Farris advisable that anyone who can’t or doesn’t wish to use those options should not less than consider a Ring doorbell camera or some form of video surveillance on their front porches so they’ll not less than “have an idea” of who did it if a package is stolen.
“The opposite thing is just don’t leave your packages,” Farris said. “Attempt to schedule your packages to be delivered for those who can later within the afternoon while you’re going to be home or ask the delivery driver to cover the package somewhere in your porch.”
An estimated 260 million delivered packages have been stolen over the past yr, in accordance with a study from Safewise, in comparison with an estimated 210 million the previous yr.
“It happens in Austin on a regular basis,” Farris said about porch pirates. “You hear about it on a regular basis, it’s develop into commonplace. Persons are almost becoming numb to it. It’s hard to catch these people. You must catch them within the act. These days with FedEx and UPS and Amazon you possibly can track the packages on the app especially in the event that they’re gonna be ordering stuff and track the package.”
The study ranked Austin as town with the third-highest variety of package thefts behind San Francisco, California, and Seattle, Washington.
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“Heart sunk, fell into my stomach, and I used to be like, ‘oh man, someone took my package,’” Tacoma, Washington resident Andres Reyes told KCPQ-TV after being the victim of porch pirates last week in an incident caught on his Ring doorbell camera.
“It seems like I used to be violated.”
The highest three cities where packages are stolen the least were Miami, Florida; Tampa, Florida; and Raleigh, North Carolina.
