I wanted to share my story and provide some tips as we are nearing the end of this year's holiday season so that we can prevent holiday theft in the years to come.  I recently bought a house with my fiancee' in a neighborhood we consider safe.  I, like a lot of people I know like to shop online to save time and avoid crowds at the malls so I was expecting a package from one of my favorite stores.  We were out of town visiting family for a few days and I because I had been  tracking my package, I knew that it had arrived one of the days we were away.  UPS had posted "delivered and

left at the front door," which is not unusual as I have had packages left recently on our front door step.  So, you can imagine when I came home, I was surprised to fined nothing at the front door.  So, I asked a couple of the neighbors if they might have received my package by accident and none of them had.  The next day, I ran into the UPS delivery man in our complex and asked him about it and he mentioned something disturbing to me.  He said that they had a few complaints that packages went missing from deliveries they made and that thieves would follow the trucks to homes and because the delivery drivers would just leave packages on the front porch/door, the thieves would run and grab the packages as soon as the trucks drove off.

I consider myself a smart woman, so I was really upset because I didn't feel as safe anymore in my new home and because my package was most likely in the hands of a heartless person with my information, my identity on the receipt inside.  My message is to everyone who decides to travel this season and might be expecting mail and or packages to follow these tips for peace of mind:

• Make sure to call your local delivery folks - i.e. the post office, UPS, Fed Ex and let them know to either hold your package until you return or tell them a signature is required upon delivery and NOT to leave things on the front porch.
• Ask a neighbor to pick up packages for you
• Alert your neighbors, as long as you trust them that you will be out of town.
• Be proactive and always check credit card statements especially from online orders and your holiday shopping experience will be more enjoyable.