The holidays are a prime time for thefts to take place of packages delivered to your home.
Iowa Falls Police Chief Josh Nelson tells RadioOnTheGo News that there are ways to make sure your packages are not stolen.
“Think about knowing when it’s going to be delivered. You know, watch that tracking. And if you can get home sooner than later, or maybe have a neighbor take it and put it in their garage, those are some suggestions. But also, you know, if you have a ring camera, that can be a deterrent too, because thieves will generally not go for the packages if they see a ring camera on the porch as well, because they know they’re going to get picked up on there. They’ll just go to the next house that doesn’t have one. Some people have options of maybe having their package delivered to the place of work. You know, during the day, if your work allows that, that’s always a good idea too.”
Nelson says there is one thing you should never use the mail for.
“There’s an old one that no one really thinks about, and this time of year it’s really big, is sending like gift cards or cash in the mail. Strongly advise against that. We still have thieves that go through mailboxes, and if they see what looks like a card, like a birthday card, Christmas card, they’re taking those. You would never know, unless somebody says, hey, did you get my card? And you never even knew that you were getting sent a card. They’ll take those cards because they’re assuming there’s either gift cards in there or there’s cash in there. So I would strongly advise sending any of that stuff through the mail.”
More than 120-million packages were stolen across the United States in 2023.
