Woburn Police Warn Of Holiday Season Porch Pirates

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

After recent package thefts, Woburn police Chief Robert Rufo offered tips on preventing porch piracy.

Rufo said there have been recent reports on the city's westside. Arlington Police arrested an Everett man with 19 Amazon packages Saturday and charged him with receiving stolen goods, Rufo noted.

Rufo said that the police do whatever they can to investigate porch thefts, including using footage from security and doorbell cameras. Officers check with neighbors, in case they have footage of potential thieves in the street.

But he also had recommendations for residents to avoid getting victimized.

"It's real easy to do shopping online and get everything delivered, but you need to be more proactive once your package is delivered," Rufo said.

He suggested residents request that they be notified when their package arrives, so they can bring them inside immediately. If they're not home, they should try to find a friend, a neighbor or a family member who can collect their package for them.

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 Woburn 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.