Packages on doorsteps easy targets for thieves

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- The popularity of online shopping has given rise to a new holiday Scrooge -- people who steal packages off your doorstep.

Although local police say they haven’t seen a spike in the number of packages being snatched this season, experts warn that the rise of online shopping has made holiday deliveries an easy target for thieves.

Shoppers are expected to spend a record $107.4 billion online during the holidays, an increase of 13.8 percent, according to a forecast by Adobe.

As online sales have grown, so have reports of stolen packages.

An estimated 25.9 million Americans have reported a holiday package stolen from their front porch or doorstep, up from 23.5 million porch thefts in 2015, according to a study conducted by InsuranceQuotes.com.

Recently, a 19-year-old Lake Worth, Florida, resident was arrested after a UPS driver caught him stealing packages left in front of two homes, according to the Palm Beach County Sheriff ‘s Office.

About 20 minutes after the UPS driver completed the delivery, he noticed Joshua Thibodeau walking with the packages in his hands, the sheriff’s office said. The driver alerted a nearby deputy.

Thibodeau was later arrested on two counts of burglary, one count of grand theft and one count of petty theft.

The packages were returned to the UPS driver, who redelivered them, the sheriff’s office said.

In another recent case, Christopher Hopkins took to social media after he said the video monitoring system at his home caught a man snatching packages off his front doorstep.

Hopkins said footage from his Ring video system, which he posted on Twitter, shows a UPS driver drop the packages near his front door on a Tuesday afternoon. Three minutes later, a man wearing a black shirt and a baseball cap is seen picking up the boxes and walking away.

A neighbor discovered the packages several blocks away. They had been opened and the items were gone, Hopkins said.

“It was Disney and Amazon,” Hopkins said. “It was silly stuff. Christmas tree ornaments. An iPhone charger.”

Hopkins said he alerted Disney and Amazon about the thefts over Twitter. Amazon issued a refund and Disney is sending a replacement item, he said.

West Palm Beach police say they have a suspect and are continuing to investigate the case.

Meanwhile, the sheriff’s office is still searching for a man it says was captured on a home surveillance system this past month picking up a FedEx package from in front of a home in Lake Charleston. The video shows the man putting the package in his shorts before walking away from the front door.

During the past several years, security firms, delivery services and online retailers have tried to find both low- and high-tech solutions to prevent packages from being stolen.

“Unfortunately, porch theft is a difficult problem to address,” says Monica Eaton-Cardone, co-founder and COO of the risk-mitigation firm Chargebacks911. “While there are organized groups who engage in this practice, it is most often a crime of convenience; the thief sees a package sitting unattended and simply grabs it.”

Delivery confirmation can help by serving as evidence for a transaction dispute, Cardone says, but it doesn’t prevent the root of the issue: the theft.

“You could have packages delivered to your office or to a local locker, or use motion detectors, security systems and light timers to fend off thieves,” said Laura Adams, a senior insurance analyst at InsuranceQuotes.com.

There are also products that allow delivery drivers to leave packages in secure locations, even when you aren’t home.

Landport is a secured delivery drop box homeowners can install on their porch or stoop. The box is bolted to its location and features an electronic keypad on which a delivery driver enters a unique access code to open the lid. Prices start at $499.

On the high-tech end of porch theft solutions is the recently unveiled Amazon Key. When a delivery arrives at your house and you’re not home, the courier scans a barcode that sends a request to Amazon’s cloud.

If it’s approved, Amazon remotely unlocks your door and starts recording video through the online retailer’s Cloud Cam. The delivery is left inside the house, the courier relocks the door, and the customer gets an instant notification that the delivery was just made (accompanied by a short video showing the successful drop-off ).

The service costs $249.99 and includes the smart lock, camera and installation.

UPS, however, says that even during the busy shipping season, incidents of theft involving its deliveries are rare.

“The vast majority of the 750 million packages UPS will ship during this holiday season will be successfully delivered,” the company said. “UPS technologies and programs help keep packages from unintended hands.”

UPS said the use of video surveillance systems has drawn more attention to the issue.

“UPS delivers about 19 million packages every day and our data indicate that the rate of incidents involving UPS has been relatively flat over the last few years,” the company said. “If a package is stolen, the customer should contact the shipper and file a police report.”