Seattle-Tacoma among top 10 areas targeted by porch pirates

The Seattle-Tacoma region is a prime target for porch pirates, and not just during the holiday season.

According to security website SafeWise, the Seattle-Tacoma area ranks 6th when it comes to metro regions with the most holiday package theft. But it gets worse. The region ranks second in the nation when it comes to having packages stolen the rest of the year. Only three cities make it onto both lists — Seattle-Tacoma, Austin, Salt Lake City.

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The information lines up with previous assessments, such as one from PEMCO Insurance that found roughly half of all Washington residents have had a package stolen from their home. Beyond that, PEMCO also found that 28 percent of Washingtonians polled said they don’t do anything to protect delivered packages. A total of 38 percent of people said they make sure someone is home when the mail is delivered.

US Postal Inspector Anna Weller previously told MyNorthwest that there is no area that porch pirates tend to target more than others. Instead, they pick and area to strike, take as many packages during a time, then move to another area. Though some cities have data on package theft activity, such as Renton. According to Renton police, packages have more often been reported stolen in the noon hour on Tuesday than any other time.

Renton police and the postal service recently teamed up and planted bait packages around the city. They were able to disrupt three “prolific” porch pirate operations in a matter of days.

And for those who are curious, the city most likely to have packages stolen during the holiday season is Austin, Texas (ranked 9th for year-round package thefts).

SafeWise came to its findings by combining larceny data from the 2017 FBI crime report and Google search trends (where people have been searching for porch pirate information with terms like “missing package” or “stolen package”).

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