The Carbon County Sheriff’s weekly update features safety tips every week and with the upcoming holidays quickly approaching this week’s subject has to do with “Porch Pirates.”

“You know its the time of year that we ship a lot of packages and we do a lot of shopping and things and I just want people to be aware. We don’t have a large problem here in Carbon County with, they call them Porch Pirates, but it does happen a lot and I want people to be smart about things,” said Carbon County Sheriff Jeff Wood. A Porch Pirate is a criminal that steals packages from a home’s porch.

To keep packages safe from theft it’s a good idea to make arrangements prior to their delivery. “So if you are having packages shipped to your home and you’re not home, make sure you have a neighbor that is watching out for that or ship it to the neighbor’s house or to your place of employment or somewhere like that. So just be cautious of that stuff, don’t present those opportunities for people to get things,” explained Sheriff Wood. Other ideas that can help keep your packages safe is to keep your property well lit, make it look like you are home, install security cameras and/or require a signature upon delivery.

Safety is also a concern when you are out holiday shopping at various retail stores. “Make sure you lock your car when you go in because you are probably just like we are, you’ll go from place to place, pretty soon the car’s backseat is loading up with goodies and lock your cars so you aren’t an easy target there and maybe even don’t put high dollar items where they can be highly visible in your car,” stated Sheriff Wood. The best place to keep items when shopping is inside the car’s locked trunk.

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