We’ve all been there. Package is out for delivery. Package was delivered. And you walk up to your porch, your doorstep, or your mailbox, and there’s nothing there but sheer disappointment.
As a community filled with sneaker enthusiasts, we’re anything but immune to these occurrences. With the new year here and a plethora of noteworthy drops on the horizons, we take a look at the ten worst metropolitan cities for package theft, according to SafeWise.com, a site that contextualizes national crime and safety trends.
SafeWise came to these rankings based off analyzing 2020 FBI larceny-theft data from metro areas across the US and then comparing it to Google Trends data in areas with the highest number of searches for “missing package” and “stolen package.”
While rating each metro area, we dedicated 50% of the score to Google Trends search popularity and the other 50% to the larceny-theft rate per 100,000 people. We normalized each measurement on a 0–1 scale—with 1 corresponding to the value that most positively affects the final score. Finally, we added the adjusted measurements together with the weights above for a score out of 100 – SafeWise
According to SafeWise, Denver, Colorado ranks as the top metropolitan city most susceptible to package theft, while Hartford, Connecticut comes in as the tenth most.
(Image via SafeWise)
However, this doesn’t mean that other cities are somehow theft-proof. In the final months of last year, reports of missing and stolen packages made national headlines. A DHL employee was arrested for stealing over $60,000 in Nike products from DHL’s Memphis, Tennesse facility, which is close to Nike’s most renowned distribution point in the US. In November, around 300-400 FedEx packages were found deep in the woods of rural Alabama.
We’re not absolving sneaker brands either as some packaging practices have made certain deliveries more vulnerable. We’re all familiar with the notorious black Nike tape that has led to stolen packages, sometimes even before they’re even sent out for delivery. While Nike hasn’t publicly released a statement on its black tape, it appears that the brand has scaled back from its tape, which made it an easier target than other packages.
There’s no solution to package theft as filing claims and talking to customer support is the only way, for now, to try and retrieve what was stolen.
And although package theft is a crime, the charges vary depending on state and federal laws. If it’s through USPS, it’s considered a federal mail theft felony. But if it’s UPS or FedEx, it will come down to state laws such as petty theft, grand theft, trespassing, and mail theft.
Texas recently imposed House Bill 37, which cracks down harder on package theft. A stolen packaged will result in a class A misdemeanor, which is punishable by up to a year in jail.
Stay tuned to SoleSavy for more news, including national trend reports.
