Can Consumers Fight Package Thieves With Technology? (geekwire.com)

Every year more than 10 million packages are stolen off doorsteps, according to a study by August Home Inc. -- a company which sells a "smart" door lock that's controlled by your cellphone so you can remotely let a delivery person into your house. But that's just one of the weird ways consumers are using technology to try to fight package thieves. An anonymous reader reports: Some online shopping sites will now also text you when one of their packages gets left on your doorstep, according to GeekWire, which reports that for a thousand bucks you can also just buy a lockable iBin parcel-delivery box. But there's also a startup selling an odd new product called Package Guard, "a Frisbee sized, wi-fi-enabled device that alerts a user when a package has been delivered and set on top of it. Package Guard sets off a loud alarm if anyone unauthorized tries to remove the package."

GeekWire details the frustration of one Seattle police detective. "Bach knows the crimes are happening, he knows it all spikes during the holiday season and he knows that the few thieves who are caught are likely to see little if any jail time." (Though Bach admits "We do a wide variety of undercover stings," including a recent operation involving mobile surveillance with a "major delivery company.") One Seattle man even attempted to stop thieves by installing a Ring smart doorbell to film activity on his doorstep, only to discover that this only enabled him to watch helplessly as a thief opened his package, and then successfully stole all of its contents.
Though he yelled at the video "Bring my package back now!" that thief was never caught.

Comments

Re: The simplest solution would be

[Anonymous Coward]

According to my local post office, if you want UPS or FedEx to deliver to a PO Box, just address the package to the street address of the post office with your box as an apartment number, and it will be delivered to you. I've been to scared of losing a package to try this myself though.

Solutions available in this country :

[RockDoctor]

- Various "locker" countries. Lockers at many locations, often post offices, petrol stations, 24-hour shops. After selecting a bank of lockers which is convenient (e.g. on your way home to/from work), the delivery driver gets the location and a code for sealing the locker ; the recipient gets a code for opening the locker ; the shop keeper/ station manager etc has nothing to do unless there's a dispute, but they get a rental fee. PROBLEM : multiple companies. NEAREST to me : 2 locations in my city of < 10000 people.

- At least one "warehouse chain" (no store as such, just a warehouse ; you select from the catalogue or online, pay, and the goods are brought to you at front-of-warehouse) leverage their existing delivery network for people to collect goods from their chosen store. PROBLEM : limited number of stores. NEAREST : six miles from me, but I'm often there anyway. Another one 10 miles away in a different direction..

- Locker by front door : bolt a weatherproof locker by your front door. Close it with a programmable combination lock. Set code on lock, send code to delivery company, lock locker, put paper seal on locker. When you get home, unlock locker, inspect goods. Reverse works for collecting returns. Change lock code for next delivery. PROBLEM : might be too small, might be ugly, these are your problems. NEAREST : I've made these temporarily - metal locker secured by chain through letter box.

But to be honest, the "card through the door and collect item from post office" generally works fine for me.

This is not a problem that really need sophisticated technology. Just a little of that rarest of commodities - common sense.

Re:And this is why

[JeffOwl]

USPS left a card in my mailbox for me to fill out with delivery preferences like : only leave with a person, leave on the porch, leave with X neighbor, hold at the office,

Just use the post office

[doom]

Look, this is getting ridiculous. If you just use the post office for package delivery, you know what happens if they can't deliver it into your hands? It goes back to your local post office, and they hold it for you-- you go by and pick it up whenever convenient. A postal worker is not just going to abandon your package on your doorstep pretending that you live in Mayberry RFD...

This is the key thing here: UPS sucks. They don't maintain anything like the network of post offices managed by USPS, and instead they like to gamble with the safety of your packages in ways the post office simply won't.

Blaiming the USPS for being "less efficient" is crazy: they *do more* for you. UPS cuts corners, and the result is a theft problem everyone is looking for slick technical fixes for.