Kentucky Lawmakers Aiming to Crack Down on Porch Pirates
Kentucky lawmakers have advanced a bill aimed at cracking down on Porch Pirates by turning the act from a misdemeanor into a felony which could result in jail time for those caught in the act. The sponsor of Senate Bill 23, is Kentucky Senator David Yates, a Democrat representing District 37, Louisville. Senator Yates says a loophole in the current law makes theft of mail a felony but does not detail punishment for people stealing packages left by Amazon, FedEx, or other carriers on porches.
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Porch Pirates Could Face Prison Time in Kentucky
When the initial law was passed the likes of FedEx and Amazon didn’t exist which created a loophole where packages left on doorsteps or ‘Porches’ were not being classed as mail. Whilst stealing from the USPS was and always has been a felony charge, porch pirates if ever identified have more often than not just faced misdemeanor charges.
Porch piracy has been a problem that has very much been on the rise during the continued growth of eCommerce and is especially prevalent on the annual run-up to the holidays. As more opportunistic thieves see presents waiting on doorsteps waiting to be taken inside. Just a few months ago we even covered the story of a parent coaching a young girl to steal a package that was caught on camera.
The proposed bill, Senate Bill 23 cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee last week unanimously 10 – 0. This means that the bill will now be put to the full Senate.
Whilst some lawmakers are posturing that prison time could be too steep a sentence Kentucky residents and police officers are adamant that it is the same as stealing and a tougher sentence is needed to dissuade people from the act.
You can see the original copy of bill 23 here.
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Dave Furness
Dave is a Co-Founder of eSeller365. For over 10 years he has been involved with eCommerce with a particular interest in the marketplaces and the huge opportunities available for sellers when utilizing a multi-channel strategy. After a year of being the UK’s youngest eCommerce consultant, he built an education platform called UnderstandingE that showed the world how to utilize Magento as the “Third Generation of Multi-Channel software”.
Dave has also created a YouTube channel dedicated to entrepreneurship and eCommerce as well as a podcast dedicated to mental health awareness. When Dave isn’t working his main interests include learning and playing Chess, researching the Crypto and NFT space, and trying to find the nearest beach.