It’s the best time of the year for online shopping. The U.S. Postal Service is expecting to deliver 850 million packages between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. But consumers aren’t the only ones shopping around the holidays. So are thieves.
"They're walking through neighborhoods, they're looking for unattended packages,” said Captain Jarron Jackson with the Baltimore Police Department. “It's unfortunate that we still have people stealing packages in this day in age. Especially when they're so many things that consumers can do to avoid this."
One of the easiest ways to prevent theft is by tracking your package. Most shipping companies have mobile apps that allow you to know when your package is coming so you can be prepared.
If you can’t make it home in time for your package, the US Postal Service has a tool where you can change the package’s address while it’s in transit with the USPS Package Intercept. Before your package is delivered, most packages can be redirected back to the sender, to a new address or to the Post Office to be held for pickup.
If rerouting isn’t an option, Baltimore Police suggest planning ahead.
"You can have a packaged delivered to someone else's home, you can have someone pick it up, you can have a signature delivery, they also have secure lockers that you can use right now," said Jackson.
If you do happen to have your package stolen, police say to report it immediately.
