"Porch Pirates" and Other Modern Day Troubles...

To be perfectly honest, I hadn't heard the term "Porch Pirates" till maybe a couple of years ago, but it's a growing issue — at least here in the US of A.

What's a "Porch Pirate?"

Well, it's someone who's (usually) in a car or van and they drive s-l-o-o-w-l-y through (mostly) suburban neighborhoods looking for shipped web order packages that have been left on the front steps or porch of a house by UPS, FedEx or the postal service... and if it appears that nobody's home, they'll bold walk up to the front door, nab the packages, and drive off... till the next street over where they'll do the same thing again.

There are often two people in the vehicle... the driver and the scout/runner who actually takes packages.

Now, I'd certainly heard of people having had their packages stolen from the porch... but somehow I'd always imagined it to be a somewhat isolated issue.

But in this age where so many people are now stuck in their houses much of the time, the volume of ordering in has evidently turned "Porch Pirating" into quite an epidemic.

What's more, the pirates are getting bolder. Knowing that many people now are at home, they get hold of convincing looking uniforms to emulate UPS/FedEx drivers... so if they are somehow noticed and questioned, they'll either say "just collecting a pickup" or maybe "tracking number says we delivered this to the wrong address." Of course, the fact that they are "in uniform" usually raises them above suspicion...

... AND since many carriers are hiring "relief workers" to help cope with the Covid-inflated shipping volumes, the fact that they come out of plain vans doesn't raise that much suspicion.

Evidently, Porch Pirates are also getting pickier or more skilled at recognizing the sort of packages that might contain something valuable, like a laptop, PlayStation, smartphone or other item that would be readily sellable or could be taken to a pawnbroker for cash. Odds are the seeds for your garden are quite safe, but your new iPhone isn't.

Close to Home...

Anyway, I still thought Porch Pirates were pretty rare... until it recently happened to our own daughter, who lives over in Seattle.

Sure enough, she'd gotten a phone notification that something she'd ordered online had been delivered to her house (she was at work in downtown Seattle, at the time), but when she came home there was no package to be seen.

So now she and her fiancé have both a front door security camera that can send a live video stream to her phone, and all their packages are delivered into their garage via some kind of arrangement they have with their delivery drivers.

It just strikes me sad that "it has come to this," and we basically have to be mistrustful all the time.

I guess that totally nixes the idea of having a roadside veggies stand with payment by the "honors system..."

Thanks for reading, and have a great rest of your week!

How about YOU? Are there "Porch Pirates" where you are? Have you ever HEARD of Porch Pirates? Or is mail and delivery secure, where you are? Give me a shout back... Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

(All text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is ORIGINAL CONTENT, created expressly for this platform — NOT A CROSSPOST!!!)
Created at 20210224 16:17 PST
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