Olympia police and Postal Service team up to catch package thieves
Olympia Police teamed up with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service this week to catch package thieves in the act during peak online shopping season — and on Wednesday it led to an arrest.
“The purpose of it is to catch and arrest thieves who are going around stealing packages, since it happens so much this time of year,” Olympia Police Sgt. Paul Frailey said. “And also for education and prevention.”
U.S. Postal Inspector John Wiegand told The Olympian the law enforcement branch of the Post Office partners with local law enforcement around the Northwest to conduct these “emphasis” operations. They target areas where there have been reports of package theft and place bait packages “with advanced technology,” Wiegand explained.
When a bait package is stolen, it’s typical for less than 15 minutes to pass between the theft and the arrest of a suspect, according to Postal Inspector Wiegand.
The Olympia operation began Monday and was still active as of Friday. Frailey said he’s seeking out other package-theft cases.
Sgt. Frailey, who works in Olympia’s Neighborhood Police Officer Unit and is supervising the city’s side of the operation, told The Olympian the department coordinated with community members who have been victims of package theft and volunteered their porches.
The team’s efforts paid off about 1 a.m. Wednesday, when a bait package was taken from a home on Olympia’s west side. Police tracked down and arrested an Olympia woman in her 30s on suspicion of felony theft based on the value of the items taken, Sgt. Frailey told The Olympian.
True to what Wiegand said, about 15 minutes passed between alert and arrest.
In addition to the bait package, the woman had two boxes that belonged to a nearby neighbor. Those boxes were returned to their owner Friday afternoon.
Olympia police also are investigating an unrelated package theft that happened on the east side Tuesday, Frailey said.
The Neighborhood Police Officer unit was started in January, Frailey wrote in an email to The Olympian, after the public safety levy passed in 2017. The unit focuses on community engagement and “proactively addressing crime trends that affect our neighborhoods.”
This December, Frailey called “reducing package theft and holding those thieves accountable” the mission of the unit.
Frailey and Wiegand shared a few tips to follow this busy online shopping and shipping season:
Get delivery notifications if possible.
Pick up items off your porch as soon as you can.
If you can’t get a package off your porch right away, have it delivered somewhere else safe instead.
If you do have to get something delivered to your front porch and aren’t going to be home, have a friend or trusted neighbor grab it for you.
The USPIS website also lists holding mail at the Post Office while you’re out-of-town, requiring signature confirmation, and monitoring your front door with a camera as ways to protect your mail and packages.
If you do have a package stolen, Wiegand says to report the theft to law enforcement. If the U.S. Postal Service was the carrier, he said to report it online at USPIS.gov or over the phone at 877-876-2455.
Northwest Insurance Council advises to check with neighbors first to be sure your package wasn’t delivered to a nearby house, contact the seller to file a claim, consider filing a claim with the shipping company, check to see if your credit card offers “purchase protection,” and consider filing a claim with your homeowners or renters insurance, if the package value is large.
Beyond taking thieves into custody and sharing prevention tips with the public, Wiegand said another goal of these operations is to send a message to the thieves themselves:
“Be aware we’re out here all times of the year, not just during the holidays,” Wiegand said. “Don’t take people’s stuff, because you never know when one of us is going to show up and and take you into custody pretty quickly.”
This story was originally published December 14, 2019 at 6:00 AM.
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