It's porch pirate season. Here's how police say you can protect yourself

Porch pirates will be busy for the next few weeks as people have Christmas presents delivered after shopping online but there are some measures people can take to be protected against having their deliveries stolen from in front of their doors, also known as porch pirating.

Police stress that you should should not take matters into your own hands but do have a number of suggestions to avoid losing the goods you have purchased online.

• Windsor man frustrated with porch pirates takes matter into his own hands

"If you don't have a surveillance camera of any type, make sure you leave your packages with a neighbour. Have a neighbour come over and take those if you have a time or date that you're going to be getting some of these packages," said Const. Bianca Jackson.

"And if you're out of town, definitely have somebody that's in charge of coming on a daily basis to check for mail or packages at your home," she said, adding that thefts should be reported to police so they can keep track of problem areas to aid in their investigations.

Jackson also suggested having the packages sent to a service such as Canada Post but Bruce Cran, the president of the Consumers' Association of Canada, said people have complained to them that picking a package up is inconvenient.

"They're not overly anxious to participate in picking packages up at depots unless there's some sort of a reward, and I don't know that any of them offered any sort of reward other than the probable security," said Cran.

He said online shopping has doubled since the beginning of the pandemic and police say porch pirating has increased along with it.

ADT Security lists other things you can do to thwart the pirates.

• Getting a lockbox to replace your current mailbox.
• Have your package delivered to your work.
• Get to know the delivery people and give them preferences where to leave packages.
• Install motion detector lights.
• Install a security camera.
• Ask that a package be left in plain view or establish a delivery spot that is obscured by other objects or landscaping.
• Require a signature upon delivery.