Entry point
The Porch and Package Theft
Anybody whose deliveries are left on a step, in a porch, or against a door in a corridor. It is the one entry point on this site where the thing being protected is not the building at all.
What constrains the work
- A camera at the door documents package theft and does not reduce it, which is the opposite of how the category is sold.
- Delivery instructions are set with the carrier and the retailer, and they are free.
- In a shared building, anything left in a corridor is visible to everybody who lives there and everybody they let in.
Start with what costs nothing
These come before any purchase on this page, and on most doors they do more.
- Register for delivery notifications with the carriers you actually receive from.
- Set a standing delivery instruction that puts parcels out of sight.
- Use a pickup point or a locker for anything you would mind losing.
- Ask a neighbor who is home during the day, which beats every product on this site for this specific problem.
Deter
Change what the place looks like to somebody deciding whether to bother.
Not being worth stopping for. A parcel that is out of sight, or that was never left outside at all, does not need deterring. This is the layer that does almost all the work on this page and it costs nothing.
Do first
- Register with the carriers for delivery notifications and windows, so you know when something is arriving.
- Set a default delivery instruction that puts parcels out of sight rather than on the step.
- Use a locker, a pickup point or a workplace address for anything you would mind losing.
- Ask a neighbor who is in during the day. This is the oldest and still the best measure on the list.
Jobs that add this layer
- Renter Security Without Drilling — No tools, An afternoon, most of it spent deciding rather than fitting, renter safe
Detect
Know that something is happening while it is still happening.
Knowing a parcel has arrived while you can still do something about it. This is the one job a doorbell camera does that genuinely changes the outcome, because a package alert at 2pm means the parcel is inside by 2.05pm if anybody is home.
Do first
- Turn on package detection if your doorbell offers it, and turn off the alerts that fire for passing cars.
- Tell whoever is home during the day that the alert means bring it in, not watch it.
- Check the camera can actually see the spot parcels get left, which is usually low and against the door.
Jobs that add this layer
- Place a Doorbell Camera — Drilling required, 1 hour, longer if wiring is involved
Where hardware is genuinely needed
- Video Doorbells — seeing the doorstep before opening it
Delay
Make the opening take longer and louder to get through than it looks.
Physically slowing down the taking of a parcel, which in practice means a container. A lockbox or a parcel box is the only Delay layer available here, and its real value is that it puts the parcel out of sight rather than that it resists anything.
Do first
- Find somewhere out of sight for parcels — behind a gate, in a porch, around a corner — and make it the standing instruction.
- If you use a box, put it where it is not itself an advertisement that deliveries come here.
- In a shared corridor, do not use a container at all: use the building’s arrangements or a locker.
Jobs that add this layer
- Renter Security Without Drilling — No tools, An afternoon, most of it spent deciding rather than fitting, renter safe
Document
Keep a record that still exists when somebody asks for it.
The record you will actually be asked for is usually the carrier’s: the delivery photograph, the time stamp and the tracking history. Your own footage supplements that and is rarely the thing that resolves a claim.
Do first
- Save the carrier’s delivery confirmation and photograph before opening a claim.
- Note the retailer’s and carrier’s claim windows, which are shorter than people expect.
- Keep your own doorstep footage long enough to cover those windows and no longer.
Jobs that add this layer
- Choose Local or Cloud Storage — No tools, 30 minutes of thinking, before you buy anything, renter safe
- Place a Doorbell Camera — Drilling required, 1 hour, longer if wiring is involved
Where hardware is genuinely needed
- Video Doorbells — seeing the doorstep before opening it
- Security Cameras — seeing what happened, and knowing where the footage lives