Across the US, iPhone customers have reported that their iPhones were stolen off their front steps, driveways, and porches before they had a chance to collect the packages. — Photo by Oxana Melis on Unsplash
Apple’s latest iPhones started to arrive on customer doorsteps last month.
Porch pirates were waiting.
Across the US, iPhone customers have reported that their iPhones were stolen off their front steps, driveways, and porches before they had a chance to collect the packages.
It apparently happened on Sept 20 in Sparta, when Lorena Mosquera’s Ring camera appears to have caught a suspected thief in the act.
He was carrying a red bag – it resembled a DoorDash delivery bag – seemingly impersonating a food delivery person, the video shows. The alleged thief, who was wearing a baseball hat and a medical mask, placed a Burger King bag on the porch and then slipped the iPhone box into the red bag, the video shows.
Then, like a delivery driver for whom time is money, he quickly turned and walked away.
Sparta police said they are looking for the man seen in Mosquera’s video, whom they said is considered a suspect.
Mosquera said she bought the Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max with one terabyte of memory from her carrier AT&T. The phone retails for US$1,599, she said.
The estimated ship date was between Sept 26 and Oct 10.
“I didn’t even know it was coming early until I got the ‘your order has arrived’ email,” said Mosquera, who noted she is self-employed and works from home “99% of the time.”
But she was out for appointments on the day of the unexpected delivery. Mosquera said she received an email from AT&T at 11:52 p.m. saying the phone had been delivered via Fedex.
“When I clicked on the link for Fedex, it showed my package was left by the front door,” she said. “I went outside and I couldn’t see anything. So I went back to the Ring camera video and saw that someone had stopped by to deliver food and that they had swiped the package.”
Mosquera said she texted the person who watches her dogs – a Doberman and a German Shepherd – when she’s not home, thinking the dog watcher may have ordered a food delivery.
“They told me that they hadn’t ordered any food and they had seen the trash by my front doorstep, and thought maybe I had emptied the car out from fast food or that the landscapers had accidentally left trash behind,” she said, noting the dog walker said they threw out the bag.
Sure enough, she said, there was a Burger King bag in her trash.
Mosquera said she started to review all of her Ring videos, but she couldn’t find any angle that showed the alleged crook’s vehicle.
“They had chosen the only spot that is not visible by my cameras because there is a tree in the middle of the yard that blocks the visibility to that part of the street,” she said.
She next asked her neighbors to see if their security cameras picked anything up, but they shared the same blind spot.
When she went to police in Sparta to file a report, she said the officer told her “it’s an ongoing scheme and it’s been happening everywhere.”
It took some time to reach AT&T because it was the weekend. When she got through, the company said it would send a new phone at no cost, but she’d have to pay the taxes upfront, so she paid the taxes twice.
AT&T said it ships tens of thousands of packages a day without incident.
“From time-to-time, we must contend with bad actors who interfere and, when that happens, we work quickly to resolve these issues for our customers,” a spokesman said, adding that the company contacted Mosquera and “resolved her concerns.”
Mosquera said she received an apology because “there was supposed to be somebody that can help seven days a week on issues like this,” she said, adding that it gave her a credit for the taxes she had already paid.
Getting your delivery
Many of the statistics that estimate porch pirate thefts aren’t scientifically reliable, but some estimates say between 25% and 40% of online shoppers have reported a package was stolen in the past year.
It’s pretty sad that we have to worry about someone stealing packages from our front doors, but it’s a reality. And with the holiday season coming, you can take steps to increase the chances you’ll get your packages.
Having cameras may be a deterrent, and they can help law enforcement track down the bad guys, but they won’t be the answer for everyone.
As Mosquera did, you should sign up for email and text alerts so you’ll get delivery updates and know when a package has been left at your door. But if you’re not going to be home at the time of delivery and you don’t have a neighbor who can bring in a package, consider other alternatives.
If you work in an office, consider having packages delivered there. Many retailers also offer a ship-to-store option so your items won’t be vulnerable to porch pirates.
Mosquera said she feels frustrated, angry and violated, but her local police department is taking the case seriously. They’ve spoken to neighbours, sought out additional video, and even watched video footage from the local Burger King to see if they could find the thief that way, she said.
Since June, there have been four similar porch thefts in Sparta, and it’s been a “growing problem” across the state, said Captain Thomas Snyder.
Some of the thieves posed as Amazon drivers and some were wearing plain clothes when they took the packages, he said. Detectives are still working on the cases, but one person who was accused of stealing a tablet from a porch in July, dressed in a yellow hard hat and work vest, was arrested in September, he said.
“My advice would be to arrange package deliveries for times when they are home or, if possible, to remove packages from their porches as soon as they are delivered,” he said. “For high-value items, they might consider using pickup locations such as UPS, FedEx, or USPS stores for added security.” – nj.com/Tribune News Service
