How To Keep Grinches From Stealing Your Jelly Of The Month

LAKELAND, FL — If you're going away over the holidays — or even if you're planning a stay-at-home holiday vacation a la Clark and Ellen Griswold — you might want to give some thought to making sure holiday Grinches don't swipe your jelly of the month and other holiday gifts outside your home when you get distracted by a surprise visit from relatives, an overcooked turkey or a leaking Jello mold.

"Unfortunately, thieves do take advantage of the fact that many people are doing online ordering and online purchases," said U.S. Postal Inspector Bryan Masmela in Miami.

In recent weeks, numerous "porch pirate" incidents around the United States have made news thanks to the prevalence of doorbell cameras such as by Ring.

One family in the Miami area got a visit from a porch pirate who looked a lot like Latin superstar Ricky Martin. He carried a package with him to make it appear that he was a deliveryman.

Watch video of the porch pirate below and decide for yourself if he looks like Ricky Martin:

Another porch pirate in central Florida may not have looked like a celebrity, but he wasn't pretending to be a deliveryman either.

He was actually the deliveryman, according to the Polk County Sheriff's Office.

He plopped down the package under an outdoor Christmas tree, snapped a photo of it — in keeping with best delivery practices — and then simply walked away with the package.

Watch below as the not-so-slick deliveryman is seen on video, courtesy of the Polk County Sheriff's Office:

Masmela said porch pirates are particularly active around the holidays but that there haven't necessarily been more incidents than in previous years.

"This year, it's coming out more in the news," he told Patch. "Obviously, now you have these things on video. There hasn't really been an increase that we noticed. Unfortunately, it does occur during the Christmas season a little more than the rest of the year."

While people caught stealing packages could face federal mail charges, most are charged locally with petit theft, according to Masmela.

He offered the following tips to avoid becoming a victim of Grinches:

• Have packages delivered to the home of a neighbor you know will be at home while you are away.
• Request signature confirmation. This applies to Postal Service packages as well as packages delivered through United Parcel Service and Federal Express.
• Have packages shipped to your office instead of your home. Just be sure to check first with your boss if it's OK.
• Before you leave for the holidays, ask your local post office to place a hold on your mail.

Masmela estimated that less than 1 percent of packages are stolen. He said most of package thieves are not well-organized.

"There's always going to be opportunists out there," he told Patch. "It can actually be your neighbor, just somebody that lives in the same area walking their dog and sees a package."