From a Reader: “Porch Piracy Solved on Our Street since 2018”

In talking about the issue of porch piracy and other local crime online, we've found that there are a lot of opinions on the issue and different steps people have taken to fight back or to address the issue in their neighborhoods.

We're going to start publishing some stories and tips submitted by readers, with or without comment. (We reserve the right to use our editorial discretion here and hope you'll understand.) Posting these doesn't necessarily constitute a full endorsement of the ideas therein. That said, we want to amplify the voices of people who want to help solve this issue, and we hope that you'll find use in some of these stories and tips.

Dana writes:

I wanted to pass along our solution to porch piracy. It’s an excellent solution to this crime issue, and one other people can and should implement in their community if they can. I feel the best way to explain this solution is with the following narrative.

Porch piracy was, and to some extent, still is rampant problem in our community, but it’s not happening on our street anymore. A few years ago, one of our neighbors solved this crime issue for all of us in a most unique way by introducing us to one of our disabled, wheel-chair bound neighbors I’ll call “Bob”. Bob is an elderly disabled war veteran who spends most of his time in his home. Not many people on our street knew Bob back then, since they rarely saw him outside his home, but that all changed back in September of 2018, when another one of our neighbors created this solution to the porch piracy issue on our street.

Bob is a really great guy when you get to know him, but like other disabled seniors living alone, he didn’t know a lot of his neighbors, but that’s not the case anymore. One of our neighbors asked Bob if he would like to help solve the porch piracy problem on our street, and at the same time, get to know the other neighbors on our street? He said he would love to do that, since the holidays have always been a lonely time for him.

So, after explaining how her plan would work to Bob, Bob agreed to have her push him in his wheelchair door to door to every house on our street, where she introduced him to each and every neighbor. She explained to every neighbor her proposed solution to the porch piracy problem on our street, and what she and Bob wanted to try. Bob then gave each neighbor participating in their anti-porch piracy solution his home address, and exchanged telephone numbers. Just about every neighbor thought it was a great idea, and agreed to try it out for the coming holiday season. So, this is exactly how it works.

Every participating neighbor would order their gift packages as they normally would for the holidays, but they would have them delivered to Bob’s home address instead of their home, since Bob had already agreed to accept them, and he would be home to receive the package when the neighbor wasn’t. When the neighbors package arrived at Bob’s door, he would call the neighbor telling them that their package had arrived, so the neighbor could simply stop by after work and pick it up.

Since 2018 this has turned out to be a great solution to the porch piracy problem on our street, and as more neighbors began to use her solution, not one participating neighbor has lost a package to porch pirates. Actually, the biggest winner in this story is Bob, since now every neighbor on our street knows Bob, and loves him and his stories. In fact, Bob’s biggest problem now is which neighbor’s Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner invitation to accept each year. Merry Christmas!