Watch out! Porch pirates could be scoping out your holiday deliveries

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Photo by Pope Moysuh on Unsplash

The postal service expects to deliver more than 15 billion pieces of holiday mail this year!

You’re not the only one waiting for your packages to arrive this year. Porch pirates are on the prowl and they’re looking to score presents of their own.

Lucky for you there’s an app to help you catch a crook!

The thieves stake out your neighborhood, and this year, they’ll have more targets than ever. The National Retail Federation says more than half of us will do our holiday shopping online.

One woman was seen walking her bike up to the front door of a home, then opening up the gifts. All of it caught on camera!

“Someone actually opening it, taking the stuff out, the packing slip fell out, she didn’t realize it, took the packages,” said Rick Deckman, who had his packages stolen.

Last year alone 23 million americans had packages stolen from their homes and while police say they’re patrolling the neighborhoods, they can’t see everything.

“There’s Amazon packages all over the place come season,” saif Crpl. Phil Mullen with the Cape Coral Police Department, “We are always on the lookout for suspicious persons walking around.”

You never know who comes to your front door when you’re not home, but there are steps you can take to make sure your items end up in your hands:

  • Have your packages delivered to your work, instead of your home.
  • Request signatures, so packages have to be handed over in person.
  • Install security cameras.

You can even use an app like Nextdoor, which lets you ask neighbors to retrieve packages for you, or to report suspicious activity.

Ring, a doorbell with its own camera and microphone lets you keep tabs on your front door. You can see and hear what’s happening at your front door in real time from your phone or tablet.

Police are confident that doorbell cameras will help catch thieves this holiday season. But security expert John Benkert warns that even though these tools protect you at home, anything connected to the internet could potentially be hacked into.

Experts recommend partnering the device with a home security company or installing a network firewall for additional security.

“Even if they don’t ring the bell, they come up and they try to take something from your porch, I’ve got their face, I got their picture.”

This holiday season you might want to keep an eye on your delivers, whether it be in person, digitally or a neighbors.

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