GLOUCESTER TWP., N.J. (WPVI) — Neighbors on Cambridge Street in the Fairmount section of Philadelphia say their packages were swiped on Saturday.
“We’ve seen people come down and take every single package that they see, rip the packages open and leave the packaging right on the street,” said Valerie Speare.
She just upgraded her home security cameras because of all the package thefts.
“Most of it’s been people following Amazon trucks. And so they know you can’t even get to the delivery. One of my neighbors had a computer monitor stolen because Amazon packaged it; you could tell what it was,” said Speare.
And with the holidays coming up, online shoppers and police departments are bracing for more.
“With the holiday season coming and people getting more packages delivered, we definitely see a rise in those types of thefts,” said Gloucester Township Police Lt. Paul Fisher.
They are still investigating a case from late October, where packages were stolen from the Autumn Ridge apartments.
Police here say they’ll use bait packages with GPS trackers inside to try to catch thieves in the act.
Fisher says there are precautions you can take to protect your deliveries.
“Get packages delivered when you know you’re going to be home, you can pick a time frame, or you can wait until you know you’re going to be home. You can have them delivered to the store and pick them up from the store. You can invest in a camera system of sorts, even just a doorbell camera,” said Fisher.
Even if the package isn’t worth a lot, he says you should still report it stolen. They say there could be other thefts in your area that it could be connected to, and every bit of info helps.
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