Online shopping always increases during the holidays, with countless people trying to get last minute gifts in, it also gives people an opportunity to shop in the comfort, and safety of their own home. COVID-19 has substantially increased the amount of people who use online sources to buy gifts, but some things are too good to be true.

This luxury of shopping has also led to new problems, enter porch pirates. This new crime involves people stealing packages off doorsteps, with some even going as far as following delivery trucks and taking the goods the moment they are dropped off. Everyone hopes that once you click buy all that’s left to do is wait for your package to magically appear on the doorstep, but that is sometimes not the case. According to a New York Times article, about 90,000 packages go missing daily and that leads to many broken hearts and angry calls blaming companies for not ensuring the safety of their paid packages.  

This problem has not disappeared in Fruita and the surrounding area. In order to combat this issue the Fruita Police Department has launched Operation Porch Pirate. This will allow people to take extra precautions to ensure the wellbeing of orders and allows residents to send their products to the Police station located on 157 S Mesa Street.  You can pick up your package once it is delivered Monday through Friday from 8 a.m to 5 p.m, with a form of identification matching the name on the package. 

This Operation will last for the entire month of December and hopefully ease stress for many online shoppers, because the last thing you need in 2020 is more to worry about.