Marblehead Police Chief Offers Tips To Thwart Porch Pirates

MARBLEHEAD, MA — With more and more people ordering holiday gifts online and having them delivered has come a dramatic increase in package thefts in recent years.

According to the National Neighborhood Watch, nearly one in four adults in the United States has reported having a package stolen at least once.

As gifts begin arriving this holiday season, Marblehead Police Chief Dennis King is giving residents advice on how to best avoid being a victim of porch piracy.

• Consider getting a P.O. box at your local post office or having packages delivered to your office
• Set up notifications to track your packages
• Install a security camera in the area(s) outside your home where packages may be delivered
• Require a signature upon delivery to ensure packages are never left unattended
• Reschedule delivery or ask for a package hold when on vacation
• Research potential home security technology and locking device options to protect and monitor packages
• Ask your neighbors to grab your packages for safekeeping until you return home
• Sign up for the USPS “Informed Delivery” service, where you can get a daily email with a picture/scan of the mail you will receive that day. To sign up, click here.
• If you believe you have fallen victim to package theft, you should do the following:
• Confirm with your delivery company that your package was actually delivered
• Identify which package was stolen and what the contents of that package were
• Contact the police immediately and report your package as stolen
• If you have a security camera on your home, give a copy of the video to police
• Report the package theft to the applicable carrier

Those who witness a package theft are asked not to approach the suspect, but look for identifying features on their vehicle and report a description of the suspect and vehicle to Marblehead police.

King also notes that around the holidays Amazon, FedEx and the U.S. Post Office will often outsource delivery to independent carriers who often drive their own vehicles without identifying markers, and are therefore sometimes mistaken as thieves. However, anyone who witnesses suspicious activity around houses is advised to report it to Marblehead police immediately.

Chief King offered additional guidance for shopping in stores and online.

• As more people are on the road during the holiday season, be sure to drive carefully. Be patient when looking for a parking space. Do not speed up in a parking lot to catch an empty spot. Look for other cars or people when backing out of a parking space, and back out slowly.
• Keep shopping bags out of plain sight in your vehicle, preferably in your trunk.
• Keep your purse close to your body or your wallet in an inside coat pocket or front pants pocket.
• Save your receipts and monitor your credit card activity.
• When shopping online, stick to retailers you know or have shopped with before.
• Do not use public Wi-Fi to make purchases in order to prevent hackers from intercepting your information.

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(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)