Lansdale Borough Police Department launches Operation Package Protectors before holidays shopping season
LANSDALE, Pa. (CBS) – The Lansdale Borough Police Department has just launched Operation Package Protectors to fight porch theft during the holiday online shopping season.
Mohammad Uddin and his son were cleaning up their yard ahead of Thanksgiving. However, the family is not just worried about yard upkeep and Thursday's feast.
It's security that's on Uddin's mind. That's because last month, his neighbor's security camera captured, what police said was a porch pirate, taking a package left outside.
"That's pretty sad," Uddin said.
Uddin also said he was worried about holiday gift shopping for his family and friends.
"We came back from vacation right now. So, we gotta get started on Amazon quick," he said.
However, he just learned about Operation Package Protectors.
"I would like to see these grow," said Lansdale Borough Police Chief Michael Trail, as he looked over two packages.
He said those two packages are just the start of the department's effort to protect online purchases made by Lansdale residents. Those residents can have their purchases shipped straight to the police station.
"We're gonna get it here. We're gonna check it. We're gonna catalog it, and then we are going to wait for you to pick it up," Chief Trail said.
He wants to close this case and prevent any new ones.
"We have always experienced package thefts in town," Chief Trail said. "Obviously nationwide and in our community, they increased dramatically in the past couple of years."
At Pedaller Bike Shop nearby, Brett Hendricks said the program may also help protect the smaller and more expensive items he sells online.
"A heart-rate monitor or something like that can be several hundred dollars," Hendricks said.
It could also save him time in chasing down missing deliveries.
"We would constantly have challenges to processing credit cards," he said.
Chief Trail said he wants neighbors to shop online safely.
"If we can help alleviate some of that fear and make a real dent in porch thefts by one package, somebody's Christmas got saved," he said.
The best part is Operation Package Protectors is free for Lansdale residents.
