Thanks to the Pioneer Press for sharing this list of ways to avoid becoming a target of someone stealing your packages.
- Make note of your shipments’ tracking numbers, or ask for the numbers if they are not automatically provided. You’ll be able to monitor your packages while in transit and have a better idea when they will be delivered. Plan to be home during that time window, if possible, or holler for a friend or relative to help you out.
- Require that someone sign for packages, which prevents them from being unceremoniously dropped outside your door if no one is home.
- Privately make arrangements with your shippers to tuck packages out of sight in the back or the side of your home, or other locations that aren’t visible from the street. Don’t put up signs to this effect, which defeats the purpose.
- Get to know your U.S. Postal Service worker and service-delivery employees. In many cases, these will be the same people in your neighborhood for weeks, months or years at a time, so establishing a rapport can be helpful when problems need to be solved.
- Look into locking mailboxes with baffle doors that accept small packages but make them more difficult to remove without the key.
Here are some of the other ways you can protect your purchases from sticky finger grinches.