Seattle One Of America's Worst Cities For Package Theft: Study

SEATTLE — The holidays are here, and that means many Western Washington residents will be busy over the next few weeks ordering gifts for themselves or their loved ones.

But if you live in Puget Sound, you might want to be a little more alert than usual, because it turns out that Seattle has a bit of a problem with package theft, at least according to a new study.

For their report, Safewise took a look at the FBI's 2020 larceny-theft data from metros across the United States, and compared that against Google trend searches for "missing" or "stolen" packages. After compiling and weighing those two datasets, they've determined that Seattle has the fourth most active package thieves of all major American cities.

"Package theft is a crime of opportunity," said SafeWise advisory board member Ben Stickle. "The more packages left for longer periods of time on a porch, the more likely they are to be stolen. As the Christmas gift season gets into full swing, there will be a significant increase in packages on a porch."

Here's a look at their top ten metro cities where "porch pirates" strike most:

1. Denver, Colorado
2. San Francisco, California
3. Salt Lake City, Utah
4. Seattle, Washington
5. San Antonio, Texas
6. Austin, Texas
7. Portland, Oregon
8. Greenville, South Carolina
9. Raleigh, North Carolina
10. Hartford, Connecticut

Fourth place isn't great for the Emerald City, but it has been worse: SafeWise's 2018 rankings had Seattle with the second-worst package theft problem, just under San Francisco. Seattle then came in fifth in 2019, and didn't even qualify for the ranking in 2020.

One reason for the resurgence is that more people are shopping online during the pandemic: SafeWise says that 54 percent of Americans plan to shop online more than they did last year. 72 percent told SafeWise that the pandemic had made them more concerned about package thefts.

Package thefts may be worse in Puget Sound, but they're far from uncommon. 64.1 percent of Americans were victims of package theft in the last 12 months (53.5 percent have lost multiple packages), SafeWise reported, and more than three in four Americans have been a victim of package theft at some point in their lifetimes.

If you're concerned about package theft, the Sumner Police Department recently offered up a few tips to make sure your order makes it to its destination safe and sound:

1. Consider a doorbell camera. Security alarms, doorbell cameras and other monitoring devices may cause would-be thieves to reconsider before taking your property.

2. Require signature on delivery. It can be a hassle to tromp down to the front door and sign for a package, but it's definitely much less of a hassle than losing the package entirely: Requiring a signature means the package won't be left at the door, giving thieves no opportunities to pull it from your porch.

3. Try Amazon lockers. If you order your deliveries through Amazon, you can choose to have packages delivered to a secure locker, which only you can access. Amazon has a big presence in Washington, and almost every city has at least one or two lockers.

4. Grab a mailbox sensor. Mailbox sensors are a little less obvious than doorbell cameras, but alert you whenever your mailbox has been opened.

5. Invest in a porch lockbox. If you're not interested in heading out to an Amazon lockbox, get one of your own, that way the deliveryman can lock up your package until you get home to snag it.

6. Check tracking information. Most delivery services let you track your packages online. Actively checking those trackers can help you pick up those packages as soon as they are delivered, cutting off criminals.