Dealing with package theft or porch pirates as they are more commonly known is one of the more unfortune side affects of ordering things online with the rise of e-commerce and online shopping. Normally porch pirates strike during the holiday shopping season when a majority of people have holiday gifts shipped to their home. The COVID-19 pandemic has only amplified the amount of online ordering taking place because many people are scared to leave their homes or don’t want to shop at a busy store during the holiday season. Because of this, many experts expect a spike in package theft this holiday season.
So, what can you do to protect yourself against package theft? The first thing you can do is to realize where package theft happens the most. The sad reality is that package theft is happening everywhere. Recent data shows that over 36% of Americans have reported dealing with a stolen package in the past year. That’s over one in every three people in this country. These numbers only continue to rise each year and each holiday shopping season.
Experts predict a rise in package theft to coincide with the holiday season as many consumers shop from home because of the COVID-19 pandemic. To get a feel for the top cities for package theft during the COVID-19 pandemic, Bid-On-Equipment recently analyzed Google search volume in U.S. cities across the country to determine where package theft has been most prevalent during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Let’s take a look at what the found in their research. As mentioned above they found that over a third of Americans said that they’ve dealt with package theft during the COVID-19 pandemic. When look at the top cities impacted by package theft during the COVID-19 pandemic, they found that St. Louis tops the list followed by Minneapolis, Jersey City, San Francisco, Washington D.C., Buffalo, Seattle, Oakland, Orlando and Cincinnati.
There were several states that were hit harder for package theft than others. In California there were fifteen cites on the top 50 cities for package theft during the pandemic. California was followed by Texas which had 11 cities among the top 100 for package theft during the pandemic. There were 5 cities from both Florida and Arizona that made the top list and four cities from both Ohio and North Carolina among the top 100 U.S. cities for package theft during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Listed below are the top 50 cities for package theft based on Google search volume for package theft related terms from March to November of this year. I’ve also included the search volume to correspond which each city on the list.
State rankings for COVID-19 package theft
1. St. Louis, Missouri 578 searches for every 100,000 residents
2. Minneapolis, Minnesota 576 searches for every 100,000 residents
3. Jersey City, New Jersey 565 searches for every 100,000 residents
4. San Francisco, California 531 searches for every 100,000 residents
5. Washington D.C. 512 searches for every 100,000 residents
6. Buffalo, New York 511 searches for every 100,000 residents
7. Seattle, Washington 503 searches for every 100,000 residents
8. Oakland, California 501 searches for every 100,000 residents
9. Orlando, Florida 476 searches for every 100,000 residents
10. Cincinnati, Ohio 466 searches for every 100,000 residents
11. St. Paul, Minnesota 442 searches for every 100,000 residents
12. Baltimore, Maryland 440 searches for every 100,000 residents
13. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 422 searches for every 100,000 residents
14. Boston, Massachusetts 419 searches for every 100,000 residents
15. Atlanta, Georgia 416 searches for every 100,000 residents
16. Newark, New Jersey 408 searches for every 100,000 residents
17. Denver, Colorado 395 searches for every 100,000 residents
18. Portland, Oregon 393 searches for every 100,000 residents
19. Tampa, Florida 364 searches for every 100,000 residents
20. New Orleans, LA 361 searches for every 100,000 residents
21. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 358 searches for every 100,000 residents
22. Austin, Texas 348 searches for every 100,000 residents
23. Sacramento, California 348 searches for every 100,000 residents
24. Cleveland, Ohio 347 searches for every 100,000 residents
25. Irvine, California 340 searches for every 100,000 residents
26. Miami, Florida 331 searches for every 100,000 residents
27. Las Vegas, Nevada 239 searches for every 100,000 residents
28. Madison, Wisconsin 318 searches for every 100,000 residents
29. Riverside, California 312 searches for every 100,000 residents
30. Long Beach, California 306 searches for every 100,000 residents
31. San Jose, California 299 searches for every 100,000 residents
32. Columbus, Ohio 290 searches for every 100,000 residents
33. Reno, Nevada 259 searches for every 100,000 residents
34. Anaheim, California 259 searches for every 100,000 residents
35. Milwaukee, Wisconsin 257 searches for every 100,000 residents
36. Santa Ana, California 255 searches for every 100,000 residents
37. Tucson, Arizona 238 searches for every 100,000 residents
38. Chula Vista, California 236 searches for every 100,000 residents
39. Stockton, California 235 searches for every 100,000 residents
40. Durham, North Carolina 233 searches for every 100,000 residents
41. Kansas City, Missouri 230 searches for every 100,000 residents
42. Chicago, Illinois 225 searches for every 100,000 residents
43. Fresno, California 224 searches for every 100,000 residents
44. Tulsa, Oklahoma 222 searches for every 100,000 residents
45. San Diego, California 219 searches for every 100,000 residents
46. New York City, New York 218 searches for every 100,000 residents
47. Plano, Texas 215 searches for every 100,000 residents
48. Greensboro, North Carolina 214 searches for every 100,000 residents
49. Bakersfield, California 203 searches for every 100,000 residents
50. Raleigh, North Carolina 200 searches for every 100,000 residents
Tips for preventing package theft this holiday season
So now that we’ve covered where package theft is most prevalent, it’s time to go over some best practices for what you can do to prevent porch pirates from stealing your packages. The first thing that experts recommend is to simply stay home for package delivery. This is easy for many people working from home during the pandemic. If you are not going to be home, try and schedule the delivery for a time for when you will be available. You can also choose to have your package delivered to your office or to a neighbor or family member that might be home instead. Other options include opting for in store pickup and requiring a signature for delivery.
The full package theft report from Bid-On-Equipment can be seen in the graphic below.
Infographic by: bid-on-equipment
