Washington D.C. – Today, Rep. Dean Phillips is calling for passage of his Porch Pirates Act, which would increase penalties for package thieves.

This week, millions of Americans participated in a massive slate of online sales – from Amazon’s Prime Day to Target’s Deal Days – which will lead to a huge influx of packages shipped to doorsteps across the country.

“As e-commerce grows, so does the theft of packages from our front doors,” Phillips said. “That’s why it’s time to make porch piracy a federal crime and hold thieves accountable, whether a stolen package was delivered by the USPS or a private carrier.”

The Porch Pirates Act aims to protect American packages by applying the same penalties currently in place for the theft of United States Post Office (USPS) mail to the theft of mail from commercial and private such as Amazon, FedEx, and UPS.  

As online shopping has increased, so too have instances of porch piracy, estimating to cost consumers $9 billion annually.

Porch piracy is an increasingly dangerous crime as more Americans, especially our seniors, rely on delivery services for vital necessities such as medicine and groceries. American consumers lose hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars as victims of this crime – many with little recourse to recover their losses.

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