With the holiday season upon us, people are sure to have packages delivered to their homes. With this comes the possibility of porch theft. The DeWitt Police and Security Camera Direct offer advice to help prevent this from happening.
The first piece of advice is to get a home surveillance system. Home security systems give homeowners the ability to see their homes at all times and allows them to see every angle of their home and can identify potential thieves.
Alexander Fratini, a police officer in the town of DeWitt says home surveillance is good to have year-round and having them to keep track of packages is even better.
“It’s especially good for packages because, you know when a package should be arriving,” said Fratini. “Then you can look on your camera and see if it’s been delivered, if it’s still there or if somebody takes it.”
He said that surveillance cameras make it easier to identify suspects, instead of having to piece things together.
Security Camera Direct can help with this.
Eric Williams, a sales manager at Security Camera Directs says the company’s uniview camera can take pictures of potential thieves and alert you if they come back.
“What it is does is it actually snapshots the person also and remembers the person,” said Williams. “So let’s say you had someone stole a package off the porch and the camera actually caught a clear glimpse of their face, you can actually mark them inside the system and the system will alert you if they come back around the house, dropping the video on the phone.”
Security Camera Direct has a fully functioning app that allows homeowners to watch and control their cameras from a cell phone or mobile device. So, if you do have a package stolen, you can access the footage directly from your cell phone.
“You can also record and download into your cellphone and actually send everything to the cops,” said Williams
This allows individuals to send video evidence for a report regarding a stolen package straight from their phone or other devices.
Fratini said another way to make sure packages are delivered safely is by scheduling a delivery time with mail carriers.
“Having your packages either kept at the post office or at the UPS warehouse or requiring a signature on your package,” said Fratini “With that, you could always have your packages delivered to your place of employment too.”
Fratini said another possible solution is a lock box.
“The lock has a built in scanner,” said Fratini. So, the delivery guy would use the scanner on the lock to scan the package and that would unlock the box, so the delivery guy can safely secure your package in there.”
Hopefully, Central New York residents won’t have to worry about their packages being stolen this holiday season. Security Camera Direct and the City of Dewitt Police say home surveillance is the best way to avoid this. Residents can also set up delivery times with mail carriers, have them deliver to their jobs, or get a lock box for the mail carrier to leave the package in.
