Study: Seattle area 5th in nation for package theft, worst at holidays
Nov 30, 2019, 8:01 AM
(KIRO 7)
(KIRO 7)
Porch pirates are bound to cause plenty of trouble in Seattle and Tacoma this holiday season. New analysis shows the cities are the fifth-worst nationally for package theft.
The home security company Safewise looked at both FBI statistics and Google searches for terms like “stolen” and “missing” package. The Bay Area in San Francisco topped the list. Because deliveries increase around the holidays, so do the thefts. Seattle-Tacoma had a larceny theft rate of 22.70, meaning approximately 22 incidents per 1,000 people.
Seattle police arrest suspect believed to be ‘prolific’ porch pirate
The study also found that over half of the metros where porch pirates strike the most are also perhaps not coincidentally high-tech hubs, including San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Baltimore, Seattle, Austin, and Denver. The information lines up with previous assessments, such as one from PEMCO Insurance last year that found roughly half of all Washington residents have had a package stolen from their home.
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To avoid helping Seattle and Tacoma rise even higher on the porch pirate list, Safewise offers some prevention tips:
-If your front porch is exposed, have the package sent to a friend, neighbor, or where you work
-Pick up the package through services available at FedEx and UPS, or through the Amazon lockers
-If possible, have the packages delivered when you know you’ll be home
If there’s a bright side, the national larceny rate of 15.95 per 1,000 people has been decreasing every year, going down 22.8 percent between 2018 and 2019.
