Amazon’s massive two-day Prime Day sale ended yesterday, raking in an estimated $5.8 billion. But now that those goods are in transit to their respective destinations, cities across the country are preparing for a summertime insurgency of what a recent Bloomberg story called “porch pirates.”
“Criminals know about Prime Day — everyone has access to the internet these days,” said one Jersey City police captain, and the “limited 48-hour window creates a concentrated opening for ‘porch pirates’ to make their move.”
According to the article, porch theft is one of the “rare crimes that crosses every economic demographic,” making it everyone’s problem. And though it’s hard to quantify exactly how many thefts are taking place, “according to research from video-doorbell company Ring, 19% of U.S. households had a package stolen at some point in 2017,” while Nextdoor, a social-networking app for neighborhoods, “says user comments about package theft spiked 85% between July 18 and 20 last year, the main delivery period for Prime Day packages.”
The problem has become so prevalent that California, South Carolina, Michigan and New Jersey, among other states, have proposed “bills for stricter penalties for package thieves,” and Jersey City police officers have begun running sting operations in conjunction with Amazon.
Porch theft has also created a new cottage industry focused on porch security, with outfits like BoxLock, Nest, and Ring all offering various products to protect packages. And those products are, of course, available for purchase on Amazon.
You can read more about it at Bloomberg.
