Lifestyle

Actions

How to stop porch pirates from stealing your packages around the holidays

Posted at 5:28 PM, Dec 19, 2019
and last updated 2019-12-19 17:28:37-05

It seems like pretty much everyone has a camera now at their front door.

Truth is though, when it comes to detouring a criminal, it’s not all that effective.

It does sometimes help the police find the person and identify trends. But with all the delivery options out there, now it's easier for people to manage.

When it comes to Amazon, they have more pickup options this year through Amazon Hub Counter — that's where your package is delivered to a store. Rite Aid and GNC are partners.

Also, FedEx has the option of having packages held at Walgreens.

And UPS has its own Access Point Network that will also hold packages.

Shipping through the U.S. Postal Service? Don’t worry. USPS allows packages to be held for pickup using the Package Intercept system on its website.

Amazon also offers predicted delivery window times of two to four hours so you can have someone there to pick it up.

“We also have a new feature called share tracking, where customers can share that tracking information for a package they're expecting with a member of the family that’s going to be in or a neighbor that's agreed to help them out, so that they can have that tracking information and know when that package is going to be there and take that indoors,” says Amazon spokesperson Av Raichura.

And there are also options through all the delivery platforms to leave special instructions to hide the package out of sight. Companies are getting better about that.