Sunnyvale police deploy decoy packages to deter ‘porch pirates’

The Sunnyvale Police Department said it planted “several” decoy packages on doorsteps throughout the city to help deter would-be package thieves.

“Porch pirates beware, you never know what’s inside that package you’re trying to steal!” the department wrote in a Facebook post.

“Steal a package and you may end up with more than what you wanted,” the post said.

Capt. Hank Syu told The Chronicle that the department would not

disclose what is in the packages, “but we’re

making it as realistic as possible so that these thieves would not know that it was a decoy package.”

Syu said the Police Department received permission from homeowners to place “several” packages on doorsteps. He declined to say how many were placed across the city.

The decoy packages are one way the department is trying to prevent package thefts during the holiday season, Syu said.

A team of officers who are part of what the department calls the “holiday burglary suppression detail” are “out in the community to try to prevent burglaries and thieves and things like that during this time,” he said.

The Police Department also urged residents to have their packages delivered while they’re home to avoid thefts and to not leave any valuables in their vehicles.

“Part of it is really educating our residents and making sure that they understand they’re also our eyes and ears in our community,” Syu added.

Incidents of “porch piracy” — stealing packages off people’s door steps, lobbies and entryways — are not new. They

have become a trend during the holiday season and are often captured by surveillance cameras.

Some police departments have put GPS tracking devices inside of decoy packages that they place in hopes of finding and arresting thieves. The packages typically look like any other package a person might receive on their doorsteps.

Some homeowners have placed decoy packages outside of their doorsteps with things like dog feces and glitter bomb to surprise thieves.