RELEASE: On Cyber Monday, Gottheimer Announces Bipartisan Legislation to Combat “Porch Pirates” During Holiday Shopping Season

Above: Gottheimer joins local leaders and law enforcement on Cyber Monday to announce new bipartisan legislation to protect online shoppers and package delivery.

RIDGEWOOD, NJ — Today, December 1, 2025, on Cyber Monday, U.S. Congressman Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5) announced bipartisan legislation, the Porch Pirates Act, to combat “porch pirate” package theft. So far this year, 104 million total packages have been stolen, and nearly half of all Americans have been victims of porch pirates. Last year, shoppers lost nearly $16 billion in stolen goods they paid for. During a three-month period last year, a report found that more than 190,000 people in New Jersey had a package stolen from them.

The bipartisan Porch Pirates Act:

The Porch Pirates Act will:

• Make stealing a package delivered by a private carrier (such as UPS, Amazon, FedEx, and others) a federal crime, a protection that currently only applies to mail and packages delivered by USPS;

• Apply federal penalties including fines and imprisonment up to three, five, or ten years depending on value, method, and circumstances of the theft; 

• Give the FBI, DOJ and federal task forces full authority to investigate any porch piracy theft of a private carrier package, a major improvement in investigative authority; 

• Create a uniform national baseline by clarifying that existing criminal statute includes delivered packages, creating a uniform national baseline to combat porch piracy and set standard penalties without preempting individual state laws; and 

• Extend interstate commerce protection to the final delivery point — including all the way to a front porch — rather than only protecting packages in transit in interstate commerce.

Gottheimer is also writing to the Package Shippers Association, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the leading national retail associations calling on them to work together on ways to stop porch pirates. Additionally, Gottheimer is asking retailers to figure out why 25% of families are not able to receive refunds for stolen packages and to take steps to fix this. 

Gottheimer was joined by Bergen County Sheriff Anthony Cureton, Ridgewood Mayor Paul Vagianos, and Ridgewood Police Chief Forest Lyons. 

Video of Gottheimer’s announcement can be found here.

More than 190,000 people in New Jersey had a package stolen in just three months last year. Porch pirates cost Americans an estimated $16 billion in the past year, with more than 104 million packages stolen nationwide.

“There’s a literal Grinch that tears through neighborhoods, stealing away Christmas presents and essentials from grandparents and children alike — right off their own front porch when a package arrives. The bipartisan action I’m announcing today will protect families under the same laws we already have for other types of mail, while streamlining the definition of porch piracy so there are no uncertainties delaying help. It shouldn’t matter who delivers your package. If you paid for it, you should receive it and get help when you don’t,” said Congressman Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5). “We can’t let the holidays be snatched away from us in broad daylight by a bunch of porch pirates. We will fight to ensure gifts stay right where they belong: with the families who work hard to buy them, with the loved ones they thought of when they paid for them, and within the homes celebrating their faith, love, and family together this holiday season. That is what our Jersey Values are about: protecting the people we cherish most.” 

“Porch pirates thrive on opportunity, and I’m asking our residents to help take that opportunity away, especially during the delivery season,” said Bergen County Sheriff Anthony Cureton. “Stay vigilant, use secure delivery options, and report any suspicious activity to keep our community safe.”

Below: Gottheimer announces new bipartisan legislation to combat package theft, alongside local leaders and law enforcement.

Gottheimer’s full remarks as prepared for delivery are below:

Good morning. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. Don’t worry, the holiday season is just beginning — there’s still plenty of family time ahead, and the age-old tradition of shopping. It looks like there will be record numbers this year, beginning with a record-setting Black Friday, with $11.8 billion in online spending — nearly ten percent higher than last year. And, today, of course, is Cyber Monday; online sales are projected today to hit $14.2 billion.

But, whether you buy gifts online and have them shipped to you, or purchase things in store and have them shipped to loved ones, for some feckless thugs, this isn’t the season of giving; it’s the season of taking. And, trust me, these people will end up on Santa’s naughty list. 

Today, on Cyber Monday, just like every day, people order gifts online and send the packages to loved ones. They also, of course, order items for themselves, including essential goods, like critical life-saving medications. 

We have seen a rash of criminals — or so-called “porch pirates” taking advantage and stealing packages from the houses of hard-working families. Yes, there’s a literal Grinch that tears through neighborhoods, stealing away Christmas presents and essentials from grandparents and children alike — right off their own front porch when a package arrives. Every day, and I hear from folks in Jersey about this all the time, there are an estimated 250,000 cases of stolen packages by “porch pirates.” 

So far this year, a total of 104 million packages have been stolen, with 46 percent, nearly half of all Americans, having been victims of porch pirates. Think about how many Amazon, UPS, and FedEx packages you get every year. It’s a huge target for the porch pirates.

This is especially a problem here in Jersey — in just a three-month period last year, a report found more than 190,000 people in New Jersey had a package stolen from them. That’s in just ninety days. You can see why, according to one survey, more than a fifth of Jersey residents are concerned about having packages stolen during the upcoming holidays.

There are seniors who put their hard-earned savings aside to get their grandchildren the laptop they need for college. Or, even the latest toy or sweater, which isn’t cheap. Parents put aside what they can, which isn’t easy with the cost of everything going up, just to see the smile on their kids’ faces when they open up their Christmas or Hanukkah gift. Now, imagine how heartless you have to be to run along to someone’s front steps and snatch those gifts away.

This doesn’t just crush the holiday spirit; it crushes pocketbooks, too. Last year, shoppers lost nearly $16 billion in stolen goods they paid for. And here’s an extra problem: an estimated one-fourth of all porch pirate victims — that’s one in four — do not get a refund. So, after the theft happens, you can spend hours calling up, emailing, or texting the business you bought things from, and have to play phone tag between them and the delivery provider to track down what happened to the package, just to get denied a refund or replacement anyway. 

I’m dealing with this right now with a gift card that somehow disappeared — I was texting with the business for hours this weekend. I feel like I’m getting nowhere. And, the cost of the average package stolen in Jersey is up to 87 percent higher than in other states. When it comes to theft, we can’t just leave families paying the price. They are already struggling to pay for childcare, food, and utility bills.

Porch theft hurts families, and it hurts our local businesses. We just celebrated Small Business Saturday this weekend, and we know small businesses are the backbone of our economy. Yet nearly one-third of small businesses reported losing at least one package to theft in the past year. It’s a huge out-of-pocket expense. We need to put a stop to this to help small businesses grow and thrive.

In total, porch pirates have cost retailers an additional $22 billion in replacement, refund, customer service, and shipping costs in the last year. 

This has a massive impact on both families and on our economy, as businesses are often forced to jack up prices to offset the massive costs they are being forced to take on each year. You don’t just lose when your package gets stolen, but again, when the prices go up because of the broader theft.

So, what can we do about the threat of stolen packages and the porch pirates? How do we help Jersey families and businesses — especially during the holidays? The USPS has put out recommendations for families to better protect themselves. 

This includes signing up for tracking alerts to receive updates in real time on where your packages are, avoiding having packages left outside for too long, having a neighbor hold on to your package if you can’t get them right away, and saving and sharing any recordings you have of potential theft for law enforcement. While these steps can help prevent another theft from happening, with the holidays approaching fast, we must do more.

That’s why, today, I am announcing bipartisan federal action to combat the porch pirates and protect our families and small businesses ahead of the holidays. 

First, only mail handled by the United States Postal Service is federally protected, so stealing a USPS package has particularly harsh federal penalties — penalties that packages delivered by UPS, Amazon, and FedEx don’t. So, they are ripe for porch pirates. That’s why I am introducing the bipartisan Porch Pirates Act to expand and strengthen consumer protections on all packages, regardless of who they are shipped by.

This bipartisan bill will protect families from theft of all of their packages under the same laws we already have for those delivered by the United States Postal Service. 

And we will streamline the definition of porch piracy, so there are no uncertainties delaying help. Stealing any package will carry the same federal punishments across the board: including fines of up to 250,000 dollars and imprisonment of up to ten years. It shouldn’t matter who delivers your package. If you paid for it, you should receive it and get help when you don’t.

Third, the bipartisan Porch Pirates Act will also give the FBI, DOJ, and other federal task forces the authority they need to fully investigate porch theft. So, this will allow our federal agencies to go after all criminals of porch theft, instead of only being able to investigate USPS theft. 

We can’t fight against these crimes with one hand tied behind our back. We need all cops on the beat to protect families from the porch pirates. It’s time for them to get a lump of coal in their stockings. 

Fourth, this bill will also increase interstate protections on packages to include their final delivery stop — all the way to the porch, not just cover when the package is in transit between states. With this commonsense, bipartisan legislation, we’re taking action to combat theft that’s literally happening at our doorsteps, and we’re ensuring that we all work together to make our communities safer.

So, finally, I’m bringing the whole team together, on both the federal, state, and private levels, to tackle this issue head-on and look out for Jersey. I’m writing to the Package Shippers Association, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the leading national retail associations and calling on them to work together and coordinate ways to stop porch pirating. By bringing everyone together across our federal agencies and private mail servicers, we can help stop package theft before it even comes to our front door. I’m also asking the retailers to figure out why 25 percent of families aren’t getting refunds for their stolen packages, and take steps to fix that.

We can’t throw our hands in the air and say to our children, “Sorry, you don’t have presents because we failed to act when we could have done something.” 

Today, especially on Cyber Monday, we can’t let the holidays be snatched away from us in broad daylight by a bunch of porch pirates. We will fight to ensure gifts stay right where they belong: with the families who work hard to buy them, with the loved ones they thought of when they paid for them, and within the homes celebrating their faith, love, and family together this holiday season. That is what our Jersey Values are about: protecting the people we cherish most. 

And there is nothing partisan about getting gifts to families during the holidays. This is a problem we can solve by working together. 

Here, in the greatest country in the world, I know that if we do just that to protect families, our best days will always be ahead of us.

Thank you. May God bless you, and may God continue to bless the United States of America.

###