Monday is Cyber Monday, capping off the weekend start to the holiday shopping season. It also means packages will soon be arriving on doorstops all over North Georgia as early as this week.
One thing that comes with deliveries are so-called porch pirates. Gainesville Police Corporal Jessica Van said porch pirates are criminals who look for packages on doorsteps, in mailboxes, and on porches to steal.
Van said there are some simple ways to combat package thieves. One is to use technology to your advantage.
"Sign up for those delivery alerts so you know exactly where your package is so you have an idea of when it will exactly be delivered and kind of plan for that," said Van.
"Everyone seems to have those doorbell cameras now, so that's another way, being in tune with your alerts," said Van. "For me, my alerts go off all the time because I live on a main roadway, but don't be complacent about it because it could potentially be somebody that is actually in your area to grab a package."
And, she said if the item is really valuable, require a signature upon delivery.
Another way is to engage with your neighbors.
"Kind of let them know, 'hey, I'm going out of town, could you grab my package, put it somewhere that's not visible from the roadway?' Because a lot of times these people are walking or driving up and down the roadways and they see these packages and that's when they run in and grab them," said Van. "Try to be a good neighbor. If you know your neighbor is out of town, hide their package or possibly put it somewhere safe for them."
Van urged anyone who is the victim of porch pirates this holiday season to file a police report.
"They'll post a video, they'll post a photo of someone stealing a package but they won't file a police report," she said. "That makes it hard for our officers to keep track of where the criminal activity is occurring... We've had several of these doorbell camera footages that have lead to arrests. So kind of make it a team effort here so we can catch these people and prevent this from happening."
