5 Ways To Stop Porch Pirates In Canton

CANTON, GA — Online shopping has reached an all-time high due to the coronavirus pandemic as package thieves gear up for the holiday season in Canton and across the country.

Canton Police Public Information Officer Pacer Cordry told Patch that the department can't prevent package thefts alone, so they need the community's help.

"We invest a lot of time building relationships with community members," Cordry said. "Strong relationships of mutual trust are critical to maintaining public safety and effective policing."

Cordry suggests homeowners use home security cameras, as those can be a deterrent and provide police with valuable information if a theft does occur.

One benefit of the coronavirus is that more people are home, providing more eyes in neighborhoods and limited crime opportunities, Cordry said.

Recently, a member of a social media neighborhood group reported to Canton Police that they saw a suspicious car following a delivery driver.

"The driver of the car noticed they were being watched and left the area," Cordry said. "We encourage anyone who witnesses suspicious behavior to call us to make a report. Fortunately, our community keeps an eye out for suspicious activity, and I believe that has helped prevented pouch thieves from the Canton area. We have very few reports of it occurring."

More than 5.5 million Americans have been victimized by package thefts over the past year, according to Finder, a personal finance comparison website, in a study released in November.

About $5.4 billion worth of items were stolen in package thefts from November 2019 to November 2020, the Finder determined.

Because of the busy online shopping month of December, that number is likely to grow by the end of the year.

Fewer people were in the nation’s malls on Black Friday, and Cyber Monday is expected to become the busiest online shopping day of all time when all sales are totaled, according to The Associated Press.

Overall holiday season sales in 2020 are expected to rise 0.9 percent, with a 36 percent jump in online sales, a study by the research company eMarketer shows.

Porch pirates could see a prime opportunity to take advantage of the expected spike in packages left at front doors.

They usually get away with it, too. Only 11 percent of victims said the culprits were caught, according to a 2019 study by C+R Research.

Who Steals A Package?

Men are found to be more likely to be both package thieves and victims of the crime, according to the Finder study. With 5.29 percent of men admitting having stolen a package compared with 0.85 percent of women, men are more than 500 percent more likely to be package thieves than women, the study found.

Seventeen percent of men say a package of theirs was stolen during the past year, compared with 11 percent for women.

Still, 86 percent of the nearly 2,000 participants in the study said they have not experienced a package theft since this time last year.

Prevention Tips

Here are five tips Finder shared to help Americans keep from becoming a victim of a package theft:

• Try curbside pickup: Drive to the store; most of them offer curbside pickup options.
• Use a post office box: This will ensure the package is handled by a professional at the Canton post office.
• Video surveillance: Doorbell cameras such as Ring can allow homeowners to scare away the thief in real time.
• Require a signature: This way, the package cannot go unattended.
• Have it sent to your workplace: Public places typically have a greater chance of using security cameras.