TAMPA, Fla. — In some states, stealing a package off someone's property is a felony, similar to stealing from the United States Postal Service, but not here in Florida.
In Tampa, according to statistics provided to ABC Action News by the Tampa Police Department (TPD), thefts are nearly double compared to last year. And with the bulk of the busiest shopping season to go, that number will rise.
Victims like Cynthia Slapak are fed up.
"I clicked on it, and his face was just coming right at the camera," Slapak told ABC Action News reporter Michael Paluska. Slapak got an alert on her Ring app and saw a man holding another package approaching her porch.
"He bent down, and I was like, oh, man, my package. He picked it up and just took off," Slapak said.
It happened in broad daylight. The man took off on a bike down the street. Slapak filed a police report and is still waiting to hear back from detectives. She told Paluska he stole $300 worth of goods.
"It's been very frustrating. I was so mad that day. I mean, I'm still mad, but (there's) nothing I can do about it," Slapak said.
"Are you going to have anything delivered to your front door?" Paluska asked.
"No. I'm not because why risk it?" Slapak responded. "I would love it to stop. I would love to be able to have something delivered to my own house."
About a dozen states have passed or proposed legislation to make porch piracy a felony. Carriers like Amazon, UPS, FedEx, and others are misdemeanors and not the same as if you steal a package from USPS.
"We watched a proliferation of just theft, maybe quadruple over a number of three or four years," State Senator David Yates, the Democrat Minority Whip in Kentucky, told Paluska. "And to be honest, I was just sick and tired of hearing my constituents victimized time and time again without any answers."
Yates sponsored a porch pirate bill that became law in 2022.
Senate Bill 23 expanded the Kentucky law to include UPS, Amazon, and other common carriers in the felony ruling.
"We were worried about increasing more felony crimes on that. But we also have to balance that deterrent effect as well. And so I looked at this a little different than just making harsher penalties and hoping to have stronger deterrence," Yates said. "But mostly it was about bringing the laws as it relates to Amazon, FedEx, and these common carriers in line with that with the mail service."
Yates said constituents and law enforcement first approached him about updating the laws. While some thefts are crimes of opportunity, Yates said professional thieves were coming to Kentucky for one reason: to steal packages.
"One thing that was the biggest surprise to me is the actual criminal syndicates: crime rings. They go from city to city, they set up base in these hotels, they usually have big vans, and they'll pick up enough packages where they fill the vans, they go back to the hotel room, they unpackage everything, they resell them, and then they move on. They're so organized. They pick states in areas that have slap-on-the-wrist laws. Maybe they don't pick my hometown," Yates said. "I'm hoping they don't all just go to Florida."
Slapak would like to see Florida legislators pass similar legislation.
"Hopefully, we can get something passed where if we do catch the people, or you know the person people, that they get punished," Slapak said. "I don't even know if that would be a deterrent, but at least it would be a step in the right direction."
