A current examine discovered porch pirates steal a few quarter of one million {dollars}’ price of packages nationwide on daily basis, and an Orange County police division is getting inventive in combating again.
One in 4 People, or 64 million folks, has had a package deal stolen sooner or later, and 9 million adults have had a package deal stolen in simply the final 3 months.
“Postal Malone”
Irvine Police Division
Karen Gordon of Irvine says she’s been the sufferer of porch thefts a few dozen instances over the previous 4 years.
“Whether or not it is groceries or these packages, , we’re all affected by one diploma to a different diploma over these crimes,” Gordon mentioned.
Irvine police not too long ago arrested a girl who was caught on safety video allegedly stealing one among Gordon’s packages, a web-based order of bathroom paper. The thief was within the condominium advanced mailroom, showing to deal with it like a buffet, grabbing no matter appeared interesting and strolling out the door along with her arms filled with containers.
Irvine Police Division Officer Ziggy Azarcon is a part of the division’s property theft workforce, which more and more makes use of social media platforms like Instagram with catchy campaigns, reminiscent of “Wished Wednesday” and “Felony Friday,” to ask for the general public’s assist.
It appears to be working. Azarcon says package deal theft is down 11 p.c thus far this 12 months in comparison with the identical time final 12 months.
He mentioned the social media posts led to the arrest of a thief they nicknamed “Postal Malone,” so named as a result of he resembled the artist Submit Malone with a face tattoos. After the posts went up, suggestions poured in, and officers received their alleged suspect.
To catch porch pirates, patrol officers search for automobiles with out license plates and warn that suspects usually gown up as package deal or meals supply drivers to disguise themselves.
When so many packages are being delivered throughout the vacation season, there are methods to forestall porch theft.
Ship packages to a safe locker Have a buddy or neighbor decide up packagesUse monitoring or textual content alerts to comply with the deliverySend packages to your work addressRequire a signature for supply