Avast! Ye olde porch pirates strike again

It seems America needs more lessons from Dora the Explorer – because swipers keep swiping.

According to the newly-published annual Safewise Package Theft report, around 260 million delivered packages were stolen in the US over the past year, up from 210 million last year. Which (to use another TV analogy) would probably make Matthew McConaughey’s character in Wolf of Wall Street proud – those aren’t exactly rookie numbers.

In fact, an estimated $19.5 billion was lost to package theft in 2022. And per the report:

• 79% of Americans have been a victim of package theft over the last 12 months, up 15 percentage-points over last year. And of that total, more than half had multiple packages stolen.
• The top three metro areas where porch thieves struck the most were 1) San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose, CA, 2) Seattle-Tacoma, WA, and 3) Austin, TX.
• The top three metros where porch thieves struck the least were 1) Miami-Ft. Lauderdale, FL, 2) Tampa-St. Petersburg, FL, and 3) Raleigh-Durham, NC.

📦🥊 Recourse: Unlike your favorite snapback, dealing with package theft as a victim isn’t one-size-fits-all. Retailers have different policies in place across-the-board, but many just eat the loss, refunding or replacing the lifted item. Stolen packages are also covered under some homeowners or renters insurance policies.

And legally, states are beginning to crack down on package theft. Over the past three years, Texas, Michigan, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Georgia, Kentucky, and New Jersey have all passed laws increasing the penalties for package theft from a misdemeanor to a felony, and another five have introduced similar legislation.