North Kingstown Police Take Steps To Combat Porch Pirates

NORTH KINGSTOWN, RI – As part of its ongoing efforts to thwart so-called porch pirates stealing holiday gifts, the North Kingstown Police Department is offering residents the opportunity to have packages sent to the station, where they can then come and pick them up safely instead of risking them getting swiped off their front stoop. This is the second year North Kingstown has run the program with hopes that it will be more utilized than it was when rolled out with limited promotion last year.

"We have a great spot here in the lot that's lit up and monitored with surveillance 24 hours a day with a dispatcher," North Kingstown Capt. Michael St. Onge told Patch in August. "It's not like we were getting inundated with calls from people who were getting ripped off. But it's there if people want to use it, and we have not had any complaints of anything going wrong with a sale when they have. When we saw an opportunity like this, we thought it would be a fantastic way to help the community."

Town residents may have their deliveries for the holidays sent to their names in care of the North Kingstown Police Department, 8166 Post Road, North Kingstown, RI until Dec. 25. Packages must have the name of the recipient on the delivery label and the department should be contacted at 401-294-3316 to let it know a package is coming, and who will be picking up the package.

Those picking up packages will be asked to show proper ID at the station. Packages can then be picked up Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., as well as weekends and holidays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

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