BELLAIRE, Texas – If you have online orders on the way to your front door this holiday season, chances are you are concerned about the possibility of them being stolen before you even pick them up.
Package theft has impacted 44% of Americans at least once, according to a study by Security.org, and thieves have stolen an estimated $8 billion worth of packages in the last year.
In a proactive move to stop the porch pirates, one local police department is trying to outsmart the thieves with “Operation Catch Grinch.”
It’s a combination of cameras, trackers, and willing people living in Bellaire who are fed up with their packages being stolen.
“We’ve had two packages removed ... it happens everywhere now,” Bellaire resident Paul Wainstein said. “We’ll catch them on video and we’ll post it on the internet or somewhere and maybe somebody will recognize the thief ... doesn’t help much.”
He’s one of many participating in the Bellaire Police Department’s holiday crime crackdown that targets people stealing packages.
“They’re looking for those unattended packages, the things that are that are sitting out there for extended periods,” Bellaire Police Chief Onesimo Lopez told KPRC 2. “We want to make sure that when people order something online, it’s delivered and they get it.”
Bellaire detectives are delivering “bait packages” to front porches all over the city. The police department has put crooks on notice, with photos of one recognizable porch pirate caught in the act.
Operation Catch Grinch: The Bellaire Police Department has kicked off Operation Catch Grinch today with the delivery of...
Posted by Bellaire Police Department on Thursday, November 30, 2023
“What we’re trying to do is to catch those Grinches, those people out there stealing packages,” Chief Lopez said.
All of the bait packages are placed under surveillance cameras and won’t look different than regular packages, he said. But thieves will have no idea the bait packages are stuffed with trackers.
“We have the ability, once that package has been taken, to follow that package and ultimately bring the person into custody,” Chief Lopez said.
The operation started last week. It’s not clear how long it’ll continue, but Chief Lopez said if the city starts to see an uptick in package theft, the same tactics can be deployed in the future.
“You would expect at this time the thieves are more active. This way they’re going to find out about it and hopefully, they’ll stay out of Bellaire and go somewhere else,” Wainstein said. “ This is not the city you want to come to.”
These are two ways the Bellaire Police Department recommends protecting yourself from package thieves:
- Put something like a patio storage box outside and have packages delivered to it so they’re not visible from the street
- Have deliveries sent to an office or somewhere you can retrieve them while away from home