Staying Secure This Christmas: Beware the Porch Pirates!

In this new blog post series we’ll be helping you to keep your home, family and belongings safe and secure this Christmas. In this instalment we’re looking at ‘Porch Pirates’ the newly coined term for package theft.

A problem on your doorstep.

Have you ever experienced the theft of a package you’ve ordered? A quick poll around the office and it seems the majority of us have! Your son is desperate for a Nintendo Switch for Christmas, you’ve saved and purchased it and it’s being conveniently delivered to your door, your courier is telling you it’s been completed, but there is nothing there? You go back and forth arguing with the courier and the seller. Now the item is sold out and your son is not getting it for Christmas and you’ll be lucky if your refund is processed in time too! This is all too common.

According to data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by iParcelBox, a parcel delivery website, incidences of Porch Pirates reported to the police has risen by nearly a quarter in 2 years with 2578 cases reported in the last 3 years. That huge figure doesn’t even account for the number of incidences not reported as most of us would go to the seller directly and not the police.

But how can you stop it happening? You’re not home to collect the parcel, how can you keep it safe!

Here are our top tips to help to keep your packages safe this Christmas.

Use smart lockers or click and collect.

Most of us aren’t home in the week to collect our parcels and not all workplaces allow delivery there. Make use of smart lockers and click and collect over the christmas period so your deliveries are kept safe and sound until you are free to collect them. Amazon lockers are available 24 hours a day and can only be opened with your unique code. Though safe, it does take away the convenience of delivering to your home.

Interactive Doorbell.

You might not always know a parcel is being delivered if people are sending you gifts. An interactive doorbell such as our Hikvision HD Doorbell Camera is the perfect tool to solve this problem. The two way audio will allow you to speak to the courier directly when they ring the door to let them know exactly where to put it that will be safe and secure. No more lobbing it on the roof like this guy…

As well as notifying you when someone presses the bell, Hikvision’s popular app can also be set to provide motion detection alerts, or just log in to the camera live so you can keep an eye on your property from afar to make sure everything is secure.

CCTV.

Installing CCTV to keep an eye on your front door can often be enough of a deterrent for thieves, and will of course protect your home from intruders, vandalism also. Our Gamut Wireless Battery-Powered CCTV System is the perfect pack for this as you can direct your camera to cover your front door. It’s easy to set up and you can even install it yourself without needing to get an installer out. The camera connects to your network, allowing you to view and control from anywhere, using a PC or mobile device so you can keep an eye from afar.

Keep an eye out for more tips to stay safe and secure this christmas in upcoming blog posts.