What DC Police Learned About Luring Package Thieves
A low-cost pilot to deter porch pirates by placing trackable boxes as decoys has produced results — and insights — in several Washington, DC, neighborhoods.
That’s bait.
Photographer: The Good Brigade/Digital Vision via Getty Images
Back in February, Sylvan Altieri, the Fifth District commander for the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, DC, set out to catch a package thief. First he ordered a Bluetooth tracker: an Apple AirTag. Once it arrived, Altieri activated it and put it back inside the box it came in, making sure to remove his address. Then he placed the package — now a decoy — on a porch in Rosedale, a neighborhood in Northeast DC. Within hours, the box was on the move. And the police had a collar.
In the grand scheme of things, package theft isn’t a national emergency, or even a top-tier urban issue. But it’s is still really annoying, and as e-commerce has become widespread across US households, so has the problem. In 2019, the New York Times estimated that Americans lost about $25 million a day in purloined parcels, or 1.7 million packages every day; in 2020, 43% of respondents to a marketing survey said they’d had orders stolen. Even in places with more pressing law enforcement needs, police hear a steady drumbeat of complaints about thefts from fed-up locals at community hearings.