Tips to Help You Fight Off Porch Pirates This Holiday Season

As more than 2 billion packages are expected to be delivered to homes across the U.S. between now and New Year’s Day, the possibility of a porch pirate striking leaves many concerned about their goods this holiday season. But there are ways to stop a porch pirate in their tracks.

Amazon Key is a service that allows Amazon couriers to unlock a person's front door with an app to safely place package inside. The service can also be used to leave packages in a user's car trunk.

Items can also be delivered and secured inside UPS mail lockers, which can be found across the country. All that is needed is an access code to open and retrieve a package. 

Another option is to pick up packages at the post office or a store like Walgreens, which has been a drop-off and pick partner with FedEx since 2017.

Cops in Round Rock, Texas, are combating porch piracy in a unique way. Residents there have been urged to have their holiday packages delivered to the police department in an effort dubbed "Operation Front Porch."

But if a person must have packages delivered to their home, they should take these steps, says security expert Bill Stanton.

"A great example is this lock box," he told Inside Edition. "They come in various sizes, very simple; you can secure it on a table, bolt it to the floor, but essentially, you open it, put it in and it's not coming out until you take it out with the key."

A doorbell camera is another deterrent, while Stanton suggests asking a friendly and trusted neighbor to retrieve packages when needed.

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