Poll: Porch pirates steal from half of all Washington residents

A PEMCO Insurance poll claims that roughly half of all Washington and Oregon residents have had a delivery stolen from their home.

RELATED: Seattle’s ‘porch pirates’ more brazen than ever

Combined across Oregon and Washington, 48 percent of over 1,100 people polled said they’d had a package of some kind swiped from their residence.

This data seems to fall in line with a rash of package thefts that hit Seattle.

“There is an epidemic right now in our town of petty thievery, where people are emboldened,” said KIRO Radio’s Ron Upshaw back in October. “It’s a brazenness now that I have never seen.”

Additionally, Seattle and Portland are second and fifth respectively in Googles searches for “Amazon package stolen,” weighted by population and searches per capita by a packaging company known as Shorr.

Even with that being so, PEMCO’s poll also noted that 28 percent of respondents don’t do anything to protect against package theft. The most common measure taken by those who do came from the 38 percent of people who make sure someone is always home to receive deliveries.

For the rest, just 18 percent of people installed security technology, 15 percent “allocated a space for packages that is hidden or hard to see,” 14 percent use a neighbor or their workplace for deliveries, and 12 percent signed up for a “safe delivery service” that allows authorized shippers access inside of homes.

Known colloquially as “porch pirates,” many of these thieves have even been known to follow delivery trucks and grab a package shortly after it reaches its destination.

This rash of thefts had led many to employ measures of their own. One man in Tacoma rigged a shotgun blank to scare off would-be thieves, and a nanny in Everett apprehended a suspect herself and held her until the police arrived.

“You know what’s so weird about these porch pirates? You could be stealing a beer koozie,” KIRO Radio’s John Curley said. “You’re risking your future with a criminal offense and just stealing whatever. It makes absolutely no sense.”

RELATED: Package thief in Bothell receives immediate karma

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