ST. LOUIS (KMOX) — The coronavirus pandemic has generated a huge upswing in online shopping this holiday season — and with that comes a corresponding surge in package thefts.
Apparently, it was worse in St. Louis than any other major city in the U.S., according to a survey conducted by the market research firm Digital Third Coast.
From the start of the pandemic through November, content strategist Matt Zajechoswki said they conducted a deep dive of Google search volumes across the country.
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St. Louis was No. 1 with 578 monthly searches for every 100,000 residents.
“People were searching for specific terms related to package theft,” he said, “things like, ‘reporting a stolen package; my package was stolen; what to do if a package is stolen; how do I report a stolen package to police?’ ”
The rest of the top-5 included Minneapolis, Jersey City, San Francisco and Washington D.C.
Overall, 36% of Americans reported having a package stolen in the past year. So, how do you prevent that from happening?
“Be proactive,” said Ray Daiutolo, Philadelphia-area spokesperson for the U.S. Postal Service. “If you see that you have packages coming and you’re not gonna be home, you can contact the post office. There are things that you can do to say, ‘Hey look, I’m not gonna be around for a few days. I would like to have mail or any of my packages held for pickup,’ or maybe you contact a neighbor for help.”
Be sure to track the shipment. Or, you also can try addressing the package to your workplace, requiring a signature upon delivery, leaving special instructions for delivery, or investing in a doorbell camera.
“Having Ring doorbells or similar devices is very helpful,” Daiutolo said. “You can see when your packages are delivered, you get an alert. I, myself, have a Ring doorbell. It will vibrate my phone and then I can see the person at my door.”
Daiutolo said USPS also offers Informed Delivery.
“You actually will get an email every day that will show gray-scale images of your first-class letters, but will also show the packages that the Postal Service is going to deliver to you that day.”
This year, USPS is expecting to deliver more holiday packages than ever before.