How to Protect Yourself From Porch Pirates in Lubbock

In this age of online marketplaces and drop-off deliveries, it’s easier than ever to have the latest gadget delivered to your door with the push of a button.

What Are Porch Pirates?

It may come as a surprise, but neatly wrapping an unattended package on your doorstep while you’re at work isn’t exactly the safest course of action.

Read More: How to Spot and Avoid Roofing Scams in Texas

Porch pirates like to scan neighborhoods looking for easy scores in boxes, bags, and even DoorDash deliveries without the owners ever finding out. This is why when I am out of town, I ask a friend to swing by my house and hold any deliveries until I get back, just in case.

Well, the Lubbock Police Department (LPD) had a thing or two to say about porch pirates, especially during the holiday season.

Protection from Porch Pirates in Lubbock

According to Everything Lubbock, LPD offered some tips on keeping your deliveries out of harm’s way when left on your porch unattended:

Have a neighbor or friend grab them until you return—my favorite optionHave the packages delivered to a P.O. box or to an Amazon pickup locationWith permission, have packages delivered to your workplaceAsk the delivery company to hide the package (behind bushes, inside a flower pot, under the welcome mat, etc.)Keep track of your package and plan to accept the delivery in person

It’s also recommended that you install a camera of some sort at your front door and keep the area well-lit with motion-sensor lights.

Read More: What to Know About Neighborhood Watch Groups in Lubbock, TXWhat to do If Your Package Was Stolen

If you do fall victim to porch piracy, you can always call the crimeline at 806-741-1000 and send the authorities any video footage you have to track the criminal down.

As long as you follow these steps from LPD, you not only can avoid getting your packages stolen, but you can help catch anyone bold enough (or dumb enough) to even attempt it in the first place.

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Tenaska vs. TCEQ (2012)Tenaska, an independent power producer, won a $3.8 billion judgment against the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality for not providing emissions credits as part of a state program​. Canva1. Enron Shareholders Lawsuit (2004)Enron shareholders were awarded $7.2 billion after the company’s collapse due to accounting fraud 13 Notorious Serial Killers Linked to Texas Many consider America’s first serial killer came from Austin and may have left to become the world’s most famous killer. Gallery Credit: Michael Gibson / Townsquare Media YouTubeAngel Maturino Reséndiz – The Railroad KillerAngel Reséndiz was known as The Railroad Killer because most of his murders were committed close to a railroad. He would jump from train to train and travel across the country. A majority of his murders were committed in Texas including one in East Texas. Reséndiz broke into the home of 87-year-old Leafie Mason in Hughes Springs in 1998. He beat her to death with a fireplace tool. His other murders were just as violent. Reséndiz died by lethal injection in Huntsville in 2006. YouTubeDean Arnold Corll – The Candy ManDean Corll abducted, tortured, raped and murderd at least 28 teenage boys and young men between 1970 and 1973 in the Houston area. Corll would lure his victim’s with the offer of a ride or an invite to a party. He then would then restrain the victim, carry out whatever evil deed against them then strangle or shoot the victim. The bodies were then buried at either a boat shed or near Lake Sam Rayburn in deep East Texas. One victim was buried in Jefferson County. Corll had two accomplices, David Owen Brooks and Elmer Wayne Henley. Henley shot Corll in 1973. Brooks died at the Terrell Unit in 2020 and Henley is serving a life sentence at the Mark Stiles Unit in Jefferson County. Phantom Killer – Never IdentifiedIn 1946, right after World War II, there were four unsolved murders in Texarkana on both the Texas and Arkansas side. These attacks happened between February and May of that year and mostly involved young couples who were stopped along a “lovers lane.” A couple that survived an attack described the man as wearing a pillow case over his head with holes cut out for his eyes. The perpetrator was never caught. It is believed that the slasher movie genre began with The Town That Dreaded Sundown in 1976 which used these killings as the basis of the movie’s plot. Getty Images/iStockphotoServant Girl Annihilator – Never IdentifiedIn the 1880’s, servant girls were being killed in a gruesome manner late at night. This went on for about a year with no clues into who was doing it. Townsfolk of Austin at that time lived in fear. In total, seven women and one man were killed while six women and two men were seriously injured by the so-called Servant Girl Annihilator. No one was ever caught for these murders. Some believe whoever this person was traveled to England and became Jack the Ripper as that killing spree started about three years after these attacks and the killer used similar killing methods. YouTubeJoseph Douglas Ball – Butcher of ElmendorfJoseph Ball was born in Illinois and was a descendent of notorious slave trader and breeder and kidnapper John Hart Crenshaw. Ball made his way to Elmendorf, Texas after the end of prohibition. It is here that he murdered as many as 20 women throughout the 1930’s but only two of those killings were proven. He was also known as The Alligator Man as it was thought that he fed most of his victims to a pet alligator. When authorities came to question him at his job in 1938, he pulled a gun from the cash register and shot himself. YouTubeGenene Anne Jones – The Angel of DeathGenene Jones was an LVN at Bexar County Hospital (now the University Hospital of San Antonio) where an unusual amount of children began dying. The hospital asked all the LVNs to resign in the hopes of avoiding a lawsuit. Jones moved on to a clinic in Kerrville. The doctor began noticing puncture marks in a bottle of succinylcholine, a drug that causes temporary paralysis of all skeletal muscles, as well as those that control breathing, and can cause cardiac arrest in small children. Jones was mixing this drug with water and used that to poison six children at that clinic. She used the same drug to kill 15-month-old Chelsea McClellan and was sentenced to 99 years in prison in 1985. In total, it is believed that Jones may have killed up to 60 infants and children though that real number may never be known. She is still in prison today. YouTubeKenneth Allen McDuff – The Broomstick KillerKenneth McDuff murdered 16-year-old Edna Sullivan, her boyfriend 17-year-old Robert Brand and Brand’s cousin 15-year-old Mark Dunnam. McDuff abducted all three at random after seeing Sullivan with the two men at a baseball field. 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He is thought to have committed murders in Michigan and Florida as well. Lucas died of congestive heart failure in 2001 while serving a life sentence in Huntsville. YouTubeTommy Lynn Sells – The Coast to Coast KillerIn total, Tommy Sells is believed to have murdered 22 people. His murder spree went from Texas to Arkansas to Nevada to New York and several points in between. Sells committed two of his murders in San Antonio in 1998 and 1999 and one in Del Rio in 1999. Thomas Brose was a carnival worker that Sells shot and killed in his motorhome in 1998. Mary Perez was a 9-year-old girl Sells kidnapped in 1999 that he raped and murdered. Katy Harris was sexually assaulted then stabbed sixteen times and had her throat slashed. Sells died by lethal injection in Huntsville in 2014. YouTubeCharles Albright – Eyeball KillerCharles Albright was adopted from an orphanage by a very strict and overprotective teacher and her husband. 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