How police and neighbors are dealing with package theft by porch pirates

How to protect your packages from porch pirates?

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ROCHESTER, N.Y. — ‘Tis the season to be jolly — but ’tis also the season for porch pirates.

These thieves are known to steal packages delivered to you, right off of your porch. Police are warning people and have tips to keep your online packages safe.

The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office is looking for a man who they believe stole a package that was sitting on a porch in Penfield.

Deputy Brendan Hurley’s best tip is to have the packages delivered to a secured place if you won’t be home.

Marsha Augustin: How ridiculous is it nowadays you can’t even have a package delivered to your home

Deputy Brendan Hurley: It’s a crime of opportunity. And we’ve seen it progress over the years.

The Brighton Police Department is also dealing with multiple cases of thieves stealing packages within the past couple of weeks. They put out an alert to the community on their crime watch page.

“A gentleman had three packages delivered over the course of a period of time, and each one got liberated from the vestibule,” Lieutenant Tim Karsh said.

Brighton Police say these thieves are doing their holiday shopping right at your front door. They are investigating packages stolen recently at multiple apartment complexes in the neighborhood of Glenwood and Monroe avenues.

Residents are fed up with these thieves taking packages from the lobbies.

“It’s not just this time of year, it’s actually more so. I’m getting calls off and on from tenants saying ‘It says my package was delivered but it’s not here,’” Joyce Russo said.

Russo is the office manager for one of the apartment complexes struck by these thieves. She says she has tried to come up with a solution and partner with Amazon for more secured delivery, but part of the issue is the delivery services.

“Amazon has a key for business, so I’ve hooked up with them. They have a passcode where they can get in the security door but not all of them are doing it, so we still have the issue of packages disappearing,” Russo said.

Law enforcement recommends having your packages delivered to your workplace, a storage locker at a local business or to a trusted neighbor who will be home.

If you have any information on package thieves or have information on the person the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office is looking to identify pictured in the video, contact 911.