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N.H. ranked the worst state for porch pirates: report

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New Hampshire snagged the top spot in a new report ranking U.S. states on their risk of package theft.

David L Ryan/Globe Staff

New Hampshire is the worst U.S. state when it comes to so-called porch pirates looking to steal boxes of doorstep booty.

A recent report by Forbes Home ranked New Hampshire as the number one state in the U.S. for thieves targeting packages left on people’s property.

The Worst States For Porch Pirates 2023 report found that New Hampshire saw 159 larcenies, or theft of personal property, per 100,000. Researchers combined that statistic with statewide Google searches for “package stolen” and similar keywords to determine the ranking.

Following behind New Hampshire were Oklahoma, Delaware, Iowa, and Colorado as the worst porch pirate states.

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The average value of a stolen package is $50 in most U.S. states, though New Hampshire’s average stolen package value came in at $75.

Massachusetts ranked 13th on the list, with nearly 102 larcenies per 100,000 and 13.72 porch pirate-related Google searches per 100,000. The typical value of stolen front stoop goods swiped in Massachusetts was $40, according to the report.

Rhode Island followed closely behind Massachusetts, coming in 15th on the list. Connecticut followed at 18th. 

The best U.S. state to live in if you don’t want to worry about front-step thieves is Florida, which ranked last and has the lowest larceny rate — two out of 100,000 — and Google searches for stolen packages. 

Forbes found that nearly eight in 10 Americans had packages stolen in 2022. That year, porch pirates stole 260 million packages in the U.S. with an estimated worth of 19.5 billion. The most commonly stolen packages were from Amazon, with USPS being the mail and package delivery service with the most porch pirate incidents. 

To create the ranking, researchers used property crime data from the FBI’s Crime Database Explorer, including data going back from 2021. Researchers queried each state’s figures for “larceny from a building,” which corresponds to package theft.

Forbes recommends that residents deter package thieves by tracking and scheduling their deliveries, requiring a signature at drop off, sending packages to a P.O. box, and buying insurance for expensive orders.

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Source: Boston Globe

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