Package theft is a crime that stems across the country and it’s so frequent that it is estimated that 1.7 million packages are stolen in the U.S. every day. Companies estimate they lose $25 million of lost goods daily.
A package theft victim loses an average of $106 to porch piracy, with 30% reporting not receiving any financial compensation for their loss. Less than half of Americans report that their thief was caught by the police. According to a study done by CCTV Camera World, Arizona ranks No. 15 in the country for package theft. The problem seems to be growing and the thieves don’t feel like they’re going to be caught.
After Phoenix resident Jacob Pritchett had a package stolen from his front porch, he came up with the idea to launch The Plank, which is a website where residents can report stolen packages. It is an attempt to make these thieves ‘walk the plank,’ and hopefully deter the crime.
After this experience, Pritchett realized the same thing was happening to many of his neighbors, but there was no great tool for the community to use to organize information in an attempt to stop the behavior. Police departments do not have the capability set up to accept residents videos and broadcast to the community. Pritchett saw a problem and came up with a solution.
Valley residents who have had a similar experience can go to the website, complete an incident report, upload their personal camera video footage and even offer a reward if they choose.
Pritchett then creates a blog post specific to the incident and give the porch pirate a name.
The ultimate goal is to bring awareness to the theft, get the perpetrator’s image online in hopes it serves as a method to tracking down the criminal or at the very least as a deterrent to additional acts. Pritchett says that anyone in Arizona can submit a report.
The website was launched last week, and video submissions are already coming with detail images and information on porch pirate crimes all over the state and the submissions help law enforcement with their investigations.
Click here if you’d like to submit information to The Plank website.
