As online holiday shopping ramps up, seeing thieves take off with goods is on the rise and has even prompted lawmakers to mull over new legislation for stiffer penalties. New Jersey Rep. Josh Gottheimer introduced the Porch Pirates Act, which would make stealing any package a federal crime and would carry fines of up to $250,000 and up to 10 years in prison.
“Right now, only the U.S. Mail, mail handled by the USPS, is federally protected,” Gottheimer said at a news conference earlier this month. “So stealing a USPS package has particularly harsh penalties, penalties that packages delivered by UPS, Amazon, FedEx or DHL don’t have.”
Sounds like a great idea but the proposed bill does nothing about who will enforce the law. If Congress expects the USPIS (Postal Inspectors) to work these new cases but does not offer any new positions or money to hire new Postal Inspectors this will never work these cases because they will be focused on losses from the USPS. Also, you if this law passes you have to have the U.S. Attorney Offices (USAO) around the country want to take these cases. If someone is arrested with two or three packages that have a sum total worth of $200 do you think this theft will be accepted by busy USAO? Many of the larger USAO’s have thresholds on financial loss in cases because they are so busy and don’t have the resources to prosecute small low financial loss cases. You have to have these issues resolved before you make a law that makes you feel good and look like your solving a problem. Currently some states have passed mail theft laws to make Porch Pirates parcel thefts felonies so that local police and local courts can handle these types of cases.
The new proposed Porch Pirates Act, which would make stealing any package a federal crime and would carry fines of up to $250,000 and up to 10 years in prison needs to be modified. The current mail theft law only provides up to 5 years in prison. So is stealing a package from Amazon filled with Underwear more important than a USPS first class letter from a large corporation that has a check for $500,000 inside less important theft do to less prison time?…