This is a great time of year not just for gun owners but for everyone in general. The holidays are a good time to begin reflecting on the previous year and also a chance for us to show our friends and family our appreciation for them with gifts. That is unless they get stolen by Porch Pirates. Having been a recent victim of Porch Pirates I’ll give you all a couple tips and techniques I’ve adopted fo keeping your precious firearm-related gifts safe from Porch Pirates.

The Camping Method

I’m sure we’ve all been guilty of this at some point or another. With the advent of free and easy tracking services, we can pinpoint the time of our delivery down to the minute. This is probably the easiest and least expensive option for keeping your packages safe from petty porch theft.

Most services like Amazon will offer free tracking with your order. Even companies like FedEx, UPS, DHL and Postal service will offer a tracking number with any shipped items. Once you receive your tracking number you can usually subscribe to your cellphone or email to receive tracking updates. Once that’s done all there is to do is pour yourself a glass of Eggnog and wait for your package to arrive.

This may be the simplest method but in reality, it’s not the most practical for all of us especially during normal working days and times.

Redirection

This is my personally preferred method. Most shipping services that don’t require a signature upon receipt will allow you to redirect your shipment to a secured location for free. Both FedEx and UPS require that you make free accounts in order to manage your shipments. Once your shipment is detected in their system you can have it redirected to a secure location.

You can ask for most shipments to be held at a UPS or FedEx location for you to pick up with a government-issued ID. Other services, like Amazon’s locker service, allow you to pick your redirected packages up at a specific locker location using a barcode that is sent to you upon delivery. So far with this method, I’ve had great success with minimal inconvenience.

Porch Pirates

Passive Deterrence

Porch Pirates are nothing if persistent. In my neighborhood alone thefts have been increasing nuisance and they all share one trend. Most of the houses stolen from are unmonitored. While Porch Pirates may be devious, most of them don’t want to spend time in jail over a pair of jeggings. Simply having a Camera Doorbell or other active monitoring system could be enough to drive them off for fear of identification.

Think Ahead

As with anything, none of these methods are 100% bulletproof. Porch pirates are a constant problem and you’ll have to use your head to make sure your gifts get to you or your loved ones. If you have any suggestions of your own, leave them in the comments below. Happy Holidays!