ASHLAND – They’re fast, they’re brutal and police say there are pirates on the porch waiting for the right moment to steal your package from your front door.
“I watch my back everywhere,” said a FedEx delivery person in Ashland. He says he saw it firsthand. “Absolutely. I’ve had someone stand five feet from the front door. It wasn’t their house; it wasn’t their package and it was signed for. Had a fake ID and everything happened recently,” the driver said.
Packages sent to police station
Sterling Police Chief Sean Gaudette says the department has a Stop Porch Pirates program that allows residents to have their packages delivered to the station. “This allows people to use our address as a mailing address. The shipping staff will take it and secure it for the time being, then they will have to show ID to get the item out,” Chief Gaudette said.
The chief says the program has reduced the number of pirate thefts in the city.
Akshi Sindhwani of Ashland says he has packages delivered to his home every week. Many of them are expensive, so he takes extra precautions in addition to his Ring doorbell. “I plan on putting in a garage keypad for the Amazon deliveries that come in,” he said.
Neighborhood watch
Shweta Sharma runs a small business and ships things all the time. She says she and her neighbors have to be extra careful during the holidays. “It’s especially bad during the holidays,” Sharma said.
To help suppress the porch pirates, they have a neighborhood watch in Ashland and they call and text each other when someone gets a package and go and pick it up for each other. “If I’m not there, they bring their house, and I bring theirs to my house. And we have everyone’s numbers,” Sharma said. To ensure that these packages reach the right person.
