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Those who steal delivered packages are known colloquially as “porch pirates,” but the term turns out to be a bit of a misnomer, since those most likely to be victimized don’t have porches.
Among apartment dwellers, 8% have had a package stolen in the past three months, compared to just 3% of those who live in houses and 5% who live in condos or townhouses, according to a new survey from Security.org, a product-review site for security products.
People of color are similarly more apt to be victimized, with 7% having a package stolen in the last three months compared to 3% of whites.
“Since porch pirates rarely interact with victims, this difference likely reflects the higher number of non-white residents in dense urban areas rather than bias in targeting,” the report stated, and linked to federal data from 2018 that found non-whites make up about 22% of rural populations and 43% of urban ones.
The survey polled 11,163 American adults from every state and Washington, DC.
Security.org estimates that 58 million Americans have had packages stolen in the last year, with a total value of $12 billion. They estimate the average value of those stolen packages is $204.
Ship out of luck: Wouldn’t it be ironic if you ordered a doorbell camera online to thwart porch pirates…and the porch pirates stole that?
Doorbell cameras were used to defend against package theft by 38% of respondents, a preventive measure that was second only to scheduling shipments when they’re home (45%). The third most common method, used by 24% of respondents, is either shopping in brick-and-mortar stores or shopping online but picking up in-store.
Like Uncle Dave, it gets even more irritating during the holidays, with 87% of respondents citing concern about package theft during the holiday season; among them, 28% said they were extremely concerned.
And not without cause: about half of respondents who’d had packages stolen said at least one of them was a gift for someone else.