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10 Clever Ways to Prevent Package Theft

It’s that time of year where the porch pirates are in full force. Take charge of your Christmas deliveries and protect your packages from theft this holiday season with these 10 awesome ways to thwart package thieves.

Package theft can happen to anyone at anytime. In fact, according to C+R Research, package theft is on the rise, with over 43% of Americans reporting having a package stolen in 2020. That’s up from 36% of respondents in 2019!

We anticipate this trend to continue to soar in 2021, as the sheer convenience of online shopping is a bigger draw than ever. What exactly can you do to protect yourself from being a victim of package theft and fight off those porch pirates?

Pick Up or Shop In-Store

Prevent Package Theft

One sure-fire way to prevent someone from stealing your packages is to not even give them the option. Instead of shipping items to your house, opt to pick up the items in store.

The downside to this is not every item is available for in-store pick up and not all online retailers have a physical location. Moreover, you’re at the mercy of the store for the pickup window and often will need to pick up the item within 72 hours of arrival at the store. This can be tricky to manage, especially if you’re ordering from a lot of different places.

Stay Home for Deliveries

Prevent Package Theft

One way to thwart porch pirates is to play a strong offense. Stay home, watch out for your packages, and bring them in as soon as they are delivered. Delivery companies are getting more sophisticated in their package tracking options, some even offering the option to watch the delivery live!

The downside to this option is not all delivery companies go all the way up to your door and ring your bell, so there is a chance you can STILL miss a delivery, even if you stay home. Move over, it’s hard to know when exactly packages will be delivered, especially with the anticipated increase in quantity of items being shipped this holiday season. With more people than ever buying gifts online, there’s a chance you could see a delay in when your package arrives.

Ship to your Amazing Spaces Storage Unit

Prevent Package Theft

Amazing Spaces package receiving service offers the ultimate solution to protect your packages from theft this all year long. Simply ship your package directly to your Amazing Spaces unit and we’ll accept the delivery on your behalf. The delivery company will then secure your package inside your storage unit, and you are free to pick it up at your convenience! This is our ultimate solution for preventing package theft because you can ship packages from any online retail to your unit; your Amazon, Target, and Newegg packages will all be sent to the same spot. Moreover, you can consolidate your packages from all shipping vendors and online retails inside your space and pick them up whenever you want. Learn more about our amazing package receiving service.

To top it off, Amazing Spaces will once again be hosting our holiday wrapping parties in our conference room. Once your items have been delivered to your space, you can wrap them in our conference room using complementary wrapping paper supplies. Not only do you have a peaceful place to wrap presents, but you are also away from those package peekers, allowing you to keep presents a surprise! Discover more about our amazing wrapping parties!

Install Surveillance Items

Prevent Package Theft

One way to thwart thieves and protect your packages is to install security devices such as a Ring camera, motion detector lights, or even a security system at your house. The downside to this is it doesn’t always work. While a great deterrent, most porch pirates have found their way around these types of residential security systems, by covering their faces and quickly departing the crime scene. This makes it difficult to retrieve the items but does offer a path for asking the retailer for a refund.

Request Signature for Delivery

Prevent Package Theft

By requesting a signature for delivery, you can increase your chances of directly receiving the package from the delivery company. This would minimize the threat of leaving the package out on your porch. However, by requesting a signature for delivery, you are putting yourself back in the situation of needing to stay home to access deliveries.

If you include your neighbor as someone who can sign, you are also at the mercy of their schedule and is not a guaranteed way to prevent package theft. Moreover, not all delivery personnel abide by these requests. While you may want the delivery to receive a signature, it’s not always guaranteed they’ll get one and they may just leave it on your porch anyway. Finally, not all delivery companies offer this option, so it’s not an all-inclusive online shopping solution for protecting your deliveries.

Send Deliveries to the Office

Prevent Package Theft

An alternative delivery location for your packages may be at your office. Instead of shipping items to your house, you can ship them to where you work. This could work very well for smaller packages and items, but still has a few hiccups. First off, you can’t guarantee you’ll be in the office to receive the delivery. It’s possible items could get delivered on a Saturday or even Sunday, and then you’re still at risk for theft. Moreover, having an abundance of packages delivered to your office is not the most professional act, especially depending on the size and types of items you plan to purchase.

Put Package on Hold at a Delivery Center

Prevent Package Theft

A solid option, especially if you realize your package is going to be delivered at an inconvenient time, is to place a hold on your package to be picked up at the delivery center. Most delivery companies offer the option to re-route your items to be placed on hold for pick up. The downside to this is you have to have an account for each shipping company, be prepared to pick up packages from multiple locations, and worst of all, is not always offered by the shipping company. We’ve noticed that the option to re-route the package to be put on hold at the delivery center is not always available or offered by the delivery company, especially once the shipment has started.

Ship Items to a Delivery Center

Prevent Package Theft

Instead of placing your package on hold when it is in route, see if you can ship items to a delivery center offered by the delivery company. For example, Amazon offers lockers and delivery pick up options from convenient locations like Whole Foods and UPS offers pick up options from Walgreens and their retail locations. One downside to this is more often than not, you do need to pick these items up within a limited window, or else they will be returned. Additionally, these places often place restrictions on the size and quantity of packages that can be held. Finally, like so many of these options, you need to coordinate picking up from each individual delivery center; the packages cannot be consolidated to one place.

Request Drivers Hide Packages

Prevent Package Theft

Another way to prevent package theft is to ask the delivery driver to keep your packages out of sight. If it isn’t easy to spot the box, it will be less likely to tempt a thief. This helps keep your packages safe until you can bring them inside. The only downside is hiding packages is entirely up to the delivery person. With an influx in packages being delivered this holiday season, it’s likely that deliver companies will be adding on additional employees. While your normal delivery driver may be happy to hide things for you, there’s no telling if the new guy will!

Install an Anti-Theft Package Receptacle

Prevent Package Theft

There are some clever options available to protect packages left on our porch nowadays! The rise of porch pirates has led to amazing inventions like the package guard, porch pirate bags, and even Amazon Keys, to help keep your packages safe. These inventions offer a neat way to add an extra layer of protection to your deliveries. Tied with a security system, this is a solid option for protecting your packages!

The downside? Certain receptacles, like the Amazon Keys only work with the specific delivery company. Additionally, these options may become unusable, depending on the size of your package.

Protect & Prevent Package Theft NOW!

Prevent Package Theft

We hope you found some package protection inspiration from this post. We’d love for you to try our awesome package acceptance service this holiday season. That’s why we’re offering our Storage Gift to You with 50% off up to 2 months of storage! In addition to any move-in specials, for a limited time, when you rent an Amazing Spaces storage unit online, we’ll send you a $25 eGift card to Amazon to get you started on your online shopping! With the rising number of package thefts, it’s important to work out a plan for protecting your deliveries now.

Have you taken any other steps to protect your deliveries that aren’t listed here? Let us know by leaving a comment and we’d love to research them to share with us!

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