Starting this week, St. Paul police are dropping decoy delivery packages on doorsteps across the city, lined with GPS technology that can lead investigators to thieves who snatch them.
With nearly 200 incidents reported in 2018 so far — including 79 reports of package thefts since Oct. 1 alone — the police department is employing the new technique as a strategy to locate suspects who try to commit felony mail theft.
Sgt. Mike Ernster said the department is publicizing their operations on purpose, in order to deter would-be thieves from snatching packages during the holiday season.
"It's really impacting a lot of people this time of year. People are relying on that package to be delivered and to have the item they purchased for Christmas," Ernster said. "We can use this technology citywide and we're going to be proactive with it."
St. Paul police will not reveal specifics about their decoy boxes, such as when they will drop them or what areas of the city they will focus on.
However, the department did confirm it placed its first decoy package on a resident's doorstep on Tuesday — with the homeowner's permission — and then monitored it for theft.
"We are using this technology to hopefully catch people responsible for this," Ernster said. "Each instance is a felony. It doesn't matter what's in the box."
According to data provided by St. Paul police, mail theft has been reported almost every single day in December so far.
As recently as Tuesday night, a property owner on West Seventh reported to police that someone stole four packages from his home. The police report in that case described the suspect as a white female who then hopped in a gray SUV and left the scene. The homeowner caught the incident on video, according to the report.
Police hope these thefts will become less frequent across the city, now that their GPS techniques are public knowledge.
"We can track the package if it moves," Ernster said, "and take the person into custody and hold them accountable."