Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
UTAH PORCHES — It’s the most wonderful time of the year … for porch pirates to steal your packages.
Salt Lake City ranked second-worst in the U.S. this year for porch pirates, according to a study from Safewise.
But porch pirates don’t just strike in Salt Lake City.
With that in mind, Provo police released a a fun video last week to educate citizens about how to avoid parcel thieves.
The roughly two-minute video starts off with a sad story. We see a man making a pancake.
Then, tragedy hits. He’s holding a whisk. He is spatula-less.
Cue the flashback (folks, grab your tissues now). It shows our main character shopping online for a spatula — a $75 spatula, no less.
Three to five days later, the expensive utensil arrives. But ... it is stolen by a porch pirate before our chef gets it.
Now we’re back to the present, where we see the man standing with a useless whisk and a burning pancake.
Then, the unimaginable happens.
A Provo police officer rings the doorbell and gives our hero his spatula! It’s a Christmas miracle.
We can see the porch pirate in the back of the patrol car and we know justice has been served!
However, in real life, porch pirates are rarely caught — which is why it’s important to try and prevent package theft in the first place.
Tips to avoid package theft:
- Require a signature
- Get package tracking alerts
- Coordinate with neighbors
- Put your mail on hold while out of town
- Deliver packages to your workplace
- Schedule deliveries
If the above doesn’t work out and you unfortunately end up a victim of package theft, Provo police suggest reaching out to your local post office or the shipping carrier to confirm the package was delivered.
If it was stolen, report it to the police.
The video ends on a happy note, and we see our main character successfully flipping a pancake with his $75 state-of-the-art spatula.
Yesterday's Have You Seen This?
Have You Seen This? Say ‘Rawr!’ to a Godzilla-themed Christmas
If you want monster Christmas decor, aren’t very crafty, and fear the askance looks from a pro, you might want to hire the person who is responsible for the decor in this featured video.
