With the holidays fast approaching, police are warning Montrealers to be on the lookout for package thieves.
Multiple West Islanders have told Global News they’ve recently had parcels stolen right off their doorsteps.
Matthew Warsh said he found security footage of someone picking up an Amazon package from his porch in Dollard-des-Ormeaux on Monday.
“I found the footage of a lovely porch pirate just grabbing the box and putting it into a waiting car,” he told Global News.
Warsh said the parcel contained nothing of great value, just some diapers and other supplies, but watching the footage really upset him.
“It’s not so much the items being missed, but somebody trespassing on my property, arbitrarily taking those items. Obviously, they were prepared for what they were doing. It’s a feeling of violation. It makes you feel a little bit less safe.”
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A few kilometres away in Dorval, Mara Welch caught a video of someone taking a package full of Christmas gifts from her doorstep and fleeing on a bicycle, also on Monday.
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“I just felt violated, really, really frustrated. You have faith in people,” she told Global News.
Montreal police spokesman Jean-Pierre Brabant said the department does not have statistics on porch theft, but that Warsh and Welch are not the only ones having this experience during the holiday season.
“It’s like that in all areas where packages are getting delivered on the entire island. It’s not just on the West Island,” Brabant said.
Welch took to social media and found that other people had spotted someone on a bike holding packages.
“One of our neighbours posted on social media that he’d seen the same woman,” she said.
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These days, couriers delivering items from Amazon and other websites often leave them right out in the open.
Brabant offers a few suggestions.
“If you’re not home, please ask a neighbour or someone you know that can pick up the package for you,” he said.
Warsh said he intends to do so.
“I’ve spoken to my neighbours, they promised to bring packages in and we’ll do the same for them. Maybe we’ll add a couple more cameras too,” he said.
Brabant also suggested having packages delivered to your office.
Amazon told Global News the vast majority of deliveries happen without incident, and said that you can choose to have your package sent to a post office. They said their customer service department is open 24/7 and will always try to make things right.
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