Online shopping season rush brings warnings about porch pirating

Black Friday has come and gone, Cyber Monday’s in the bag.

Next comes Porch Pirate Tuesday, perhaps. Or Wednesday. Or whichever day packages come to your house and sit, unguarded by the front door.

“We have been seeing some of these porch pirates,” Police Sergeant Tom Walsh said. “We’ve made some arrests this year, recently, with individuals who have gone up and taken packages off the front steps.”

Walsh said some porch pirates have been nailed with the help of surveillance video or the new wi-fi doorbells that alert you to potential front door thievery.

He recommends taking precautions like creating specific delivery instructions or having packages dropped off with someone who will be at home, as well as reminding “Aunt Susie” to think about those things when she’s sending stuff your way unannounced.

“That’s something that maybe gets missed in this, is that these packages aren’t necessarily the ones that we order, that maybe somebody else is shipping it,” Walsh said.

Some other suggestions to thwart the porch pirate thievery:

• Require signatures.
• Specify a place to stash packages out of plain sight.
• Plan to pick up packages at the office of the carrier.
• Have them delivered to your work.