Black Friday set a record with over $11.8 billion in online sales, but the surge in deliveries has fueled concerns about package theft. “Porch pirates” stole an estimated 104 million packages in the past year, costing Americans about $15 billion, according to SafeWise.

To combat the rise in thefts, Rep. Josh Gottheimer has introduced the bipartisan Porch Pirates Act, which would make stealing delivered packages a federal crime and impose penalties similar to those for stealing U.S. mail—ranging from fines to 3, 5, or 10 years in prison, depending on the severity.

Police recommend preventing theft by using secure delivery locations (such as Amazon lockers or UPS access points), tracking packages, requesting signatures, scheduling deliveries when home, installing doorbell cameras, improving lighting, and asking neighbors to retrieve packages when away.

Odds Breakdown

Annual odds (per year)

• 31% chance
• 1 in 3.2 people
• Put another way: for every 3 households, 1 is likely to have at least one package stolen this year.

Odds if you receive packages frequently

People who get many deliveries (3–5+ packages per week) face dramatically higher risk, often estimated at:

• 50%+ chance per year
• 1 in 2 odds or worse

(This is because thefts are concentrated among a smaller group of high-volume online shoppers.)

Odds for low-delivery households

People who rarely receive packages may have odds as low as:

• 5–10% per year
• 1 in 10 to 1 in 20 odds

Package theft increases 30–50% during the holiday season

Beware of ‘porch pirates’ who steal delivered packages