‘We opened the door and it was gone’: Porch piracy problems pick up during holidays

Police and postal services are sounding the alarm over a scheme that could hijack holiday plans.

For those thinking of ordering gifts online this season, they say you should keep an eye on your delivery to prevent porch piracy – the theft of packages from your doorstep. Winnipeg police say the crime is pretty common this time of year.

“Usually it’s between November and just after the holidays,” said Const. Rachel Vertone. “Because there is just more deliveries that are occurring at this time.”

Justin Mann and his family say they’ve never had any issues in their neighbourhood until last month, when a person came by and stole their package off of their front porch.

“We opened the door and it was gone,” Mann said. “And it was taken five minutes before we had tried to get it off the steps.”

Mann said he tried to go after the box burglar but wasn’t able to find the parcel or the person of interest.

“Just looking for something. Maybe they dropped the box somewhere or whatever,” he said. “I was unsuccessful but worth a shot.”

Mann said he filed a police report but hasn’t heard back.

One homeowner in St. James said her cat’s medicine was swiped from her steps, so she took matters into her own hands.

“I decided to start putting cat poop into Amazon bags and just leaving them there,” Alison said. “Because that way, maybe it’d be a deterrent.”

She said the same person picked up the decoy delivery a week later and flung the feline feces across her neighbour’s yards. Once Alison discovered the debris, she said she cleaned it up right away. 

“After that I didn’t have any other problems,” she said.

Both Alison and Mann said their couriers either refunded them or sent new items after the thefts. But postal services say there are other paths to take before porch pirates strike.

“They can do order tracking, they can obviously select a hub location where they want to pick up their orders,” said Barbara Agrait, the senior public relations manager at Amazon.

“If you’re not going to be there, send us instructions and we will work with you to ensure that there’s a solution for you,” said FedEx Express Canada communications advisor James Anderson.

Some victims of porch piracy say they hope jotting down more-detailed instructions for delivery drivers will help prevent future thefts.

“Put it out of view in the first place,” Alison said.

For those that have been victims of porch piracy, Winnipeg police say they can file a report online.