Holiday shopping in full swing; porch pirates on the lookout

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — It's the most wonderful time of the year, not just for those who enjoy the holidays, but also for porch pirates.

One study estimates nearly 58 million Americans will be victims of porch piracy, and the estimated value of packages taken is around $12 billion.

Here locally, Springfield Police say they haven't seen a rise in porch pirate reports.

"The sergeant over our property crimes unit does read every single report, so he has a pretty good idea just anecdotally on what is and isn't happening at this time," Cris Swaters with SPD said. "Right now what we're seeing is just kind of a steady number of these types of reports. Not seeing an uptick as of yet."

SPD says the best offense is a good defense.

"The proactive effort by the Springfield Police Department is really in the education of the community to take steps to protect themselves from becoming a victim of a property crime, like a theft of a package off a porch or even theft of something from your vehicle," Swaters said. "Some basic steps you can take to reduce that opportunity for this crime to happen, whether you've got a ring, camera, doorbell, camera, some other security cameras, that's always a great deterrent."

Swaters says having a good relationship with your neighbors and trusting them with the package is a good move too.

So what happens if you have a package stolen?

Call the police first.  

"Our property crimes unit reviews every police report, whether it's filed in person or online or by phone by calling our non-emergency phone number, they review each one and determine whether or not it meets the criteria for further follow-up," Swaters said. "Due to staffing, we do have to prioritize the detectives' time. So that means at the time of the report, the level of the offense and its impact on the community will affect whether or not it is assigned at the time of the report."

We checked in with major delivery groups UPS, FedEx and Amazon about what they offer customers should a package get stolen.

Starting with UPS, we asked what they offer customers for protection.

A representative said, "The standard loss and damage protection on shipments created on UPS.com is $100. Customers can purchase additional protection for higher-value shipments. The UPS Store offers a Pack and Ship Guarantee for shipments that are packed and shipped by The UPS Store."

Meaning, that if you go through a UPS store, there are more protections from them than if you simply order an item online and they just happen to be the company shipping and delivering it.

UPS officials say if you order an item online and it is just the delivery method if it's stolen, contact the retailer.

UPS also offers a free service called "UPS My Choice" which allows customers to change the time and location of their delivery, and even where a UPS worker will leave the package.

FedEx offers a similar service to UPS, called "FedEx Delivery Manager" which offers a lot of the same perks.

FedEx didn't say if they offered any protections for customers at the time this story was written.

Amazon says they encourage anyone who has been the victim of package theft to contact local police like they would to report any other crime and to reach out to Amazon’s customer service team, which is open 24/7.

Officials with the online shopping giant wouldn't say if there was a deadline to report a package stolen but encourage customers to report a theft as soon as possible.

Amazon says they have more than 25,000 pickup locations across the country that allow them to pick their package up at a time and place that works best for them.

In Missouri, penalties have been ramped up to help curb porch pirates.

In 2023, a law was passed giving the first offense a misdemeanor charge, and the next offense carries a Class E felony charge.