Photo: Stock image of person stealing delivery package from porch steps, surveillance camera view
FRANKFORT, KY— A measure moving through the Kentucky Senate aims to rein in "porch pirates", a nickname for people who steal packages off front porches.
Sponsored by Sen. David Yates, D-Louisville, Senate Bill 23 would make it a class D felony to steal or destroy packages from common carriers and delivery services – similar to the penalty for stealing U.S. mail. The measure cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee without opposition on Thursday.
Yates said SB 23 is needed to curb theft rings and close a loophole that treats packages from delivery services differently than mail from the U.S. Postal Service. Yates said porch pirates are a growing issue in Louisville that he fears will only escalate.
“There’s a loophole in the law. At the time we passed this some 40 years ago, we did not consider the type of commerce that we have today,” he said. “There wasn’t the Amazon, the FedEx and all the other delivery courier services. So, they’re treated different under the law today.”
Yates said he has talked with people who have been victimized over and over again. Some have had medicines or other important items stolen, and crime rings have been known to move from city to city, trolling neighborhoods in vans.
Yates said he is usually hesitant to increase misdemeanors to felonies, but he reasoned that the bill simply brings the other carriers into conformity with the postal service. The bill also has support from the Fraternal Order of Police, he said.
Sen. Wil Schroder, R-Wilder, voted for the measure, but also expressed concern about switching misdemeanors to felonies.
“Like you, I am hesitant to start making misdemeanors felonies, and if it’s a $5 package, a felony can seem kind of steep,” he said.
Sen. Phillip Wheeler, R-Pikeville, said the seriousness of the problem led him to vote for the bill.
“While I obviously don’t want to make $5 crimes a felony, this is merely bringing up modern commerce and making it commensurate with theft of mail,” he said. “When we all see these news stories where crime has gotten so rampant in big cities, where organized gangs are even robbing trains, we thought we left that behind in the 19th Century, and now we’re seeing that once again, especially in our metropolitan areas.”
