Sonoma County law enforcement deploys ‘bait’ packages to combat holiday theft

At least three Sonoma County law enforcement agencies are deploying decoy packages equipped with GPS tracking devices to stop potential thieves this holiday season.

Officials from the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office and the Santa Rosa and Petaluma police departments said they already are using or plan to use “bait” packages, which generally resemble normal delivery boxes but have tracking technology disguised inside.

“We find a way to make sure that the GPS can work inside the package. If you open it up, it might look like it’s a number of different things,” Petaluma Police Sgt. Paul Gilman said. “You may not know until you get stopped on your way home that you’ve stolen a device that has GPS in it.”

Package theft is common around the holidays, as more and more items from online orders or elsewhere get delivered to residents’ doorsteps and left, Gilman said. Petaluma police earlier this week arrested a woman on suspicion of stealing packages from someone’s front porch.

Theft can occur even if a package is only unattended for a brief period of time - a lesson Gilman learned firsthand.

Two weeks before Christmas last year, a package containing beanie caps Gilman ordered as presents for his team at the police department was delivered to his home. Despite receiving a delivery message, Gilman found no package at home when he arrived, nor did his fiancée.

“They were stolen off my porch within 10 minutes of being dropped off,” he said. The thief was eventually caught while trying to steal another package a few days later, according to Gilman.

Petaluma police used “bait” devices - for packages and other property such as bikes - during the holiday season last year, said Sgt. Brian Miller. Over the course of a few months, the program netted about 10 arrests, Miller said.

Santa Rosa police also deployed “bait” packages during the holidays last year and were able to catch three suspects, according to Detective Gavin Holzapfel. The department gets an estimated six reports of package theft each day during the holiday season, Holzapfel said.

“And that’s just what gets reported. Probably a lot of it people don’t report (because) they don’t think there’s much we could do,” he said. This year, the department has had “bait” packages deployed already for about two weeks.

Part of the Santa Rosa Police Department’s efforts to catch potential package thieves involve working with residents and targeting “hot spots” where reported thefts have occurred, Holzapfel said.

The Sheriff’s Office posted a message Tuesday on Facebook asking residents to email if they wanted their home to be the site of a decoy package. Sheriff’s Sgt. Spencer Crum said the office had received “many emails” already from residents offering to be volunteers in the program, which is a first for the office this holiday season.

Authorities say residents can help combat package theft by installing security cameras, having packages delivered when someone will definitely be home, requiring signature verification or even asking a neighbor to move delivered packages out of plain view.

You can reach Staff Writer J.D. Morris at 707-521-5337 or jd.morris@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @thejdmorris.