During the Christmas shopping season, the activity of the so-called “Porch Pirates”, thieves who steal packages from the door of your house, multiplies.

Tracking packages, holding them at the post office if you’re out of town, investing in a security system — those are all solid strategies for keeping your deliveries safe.

Porch pirates: they are the modern-day Grinches who stole Christmas and some ordinary days, too. A survey conducted by the security product review website Security.org found that one in four American adults have had a package stolen at some point in their lives.

A new consumer survey shows package thieves have stolen from 14 million Americans in just the last three months. National consumer correspondent Usher Quraishi shows how to protect yourself from porch pirates.

A 2024 study by SafeWise estimates more than 120 million packages were taken from porches across the U.S. in 2023, up one million from the year before.