Thieves who target this house are in for one not-so-jolly surprise ...

Porch pirates are a rampant problem across the country. As people embrace the convenience and efficiency of online shopping, the opportunity for these thefts increases.

Major retailers have taken steps to prevent this. Amazon, for example, began offering Prime members the option to pick a delivery day. Special delivery instructions, picking items from delivery lockers or post offices, extra storage bins or trash cans, and tactics like decoy boxes have all been used. But one mom from Colorado, who was fed up with her things being stolen, took a bit of a different approach on decoy boxes ...

Christine Hyatt, of Colorado Springs, had enough of porch thieves after a package with expensive medicine was stolen. So, she took matters into her own hands.

After a buildup of household trash due to the Thanksgiving holiday, Hyatt began filling up empty Amazon boxes and leaving them out front. Sure enough, the packages were swiped from her porch, with the thieves unknowingly carting off her family’s trash, boxes of cigarette butts, take-out boxes, and kitty litter. Hyatt has put at least three batches of the decoy trash-filled boxes out on her front porch and says they have all been taken.

Having saved both her packages and the trouble of taking out the trash, Hyatt will likely keep it up to continue to discourage thieves from targeting packages left on the front step. As she told KKTV in Colorado Springs, "My daughter told me that was gross. But they deserve it." This is her small way of fighting back against thieves looking to target her family, and she hopes they get the message. 

According to Forbes.com, 49 percent of Americans fear a package being stolen and at least 18 percent know someone who has had something stolen by porch pirates. Denver, in particular, has been named by home security group Safewise as one of the worst cities for porch pirates in the country.

Last year, a family from Fredrick came up with a lockbox to prevent porch pirate thefts and has had success with the simple concept of a box bolted to one’s home or porch with a lock, that allows packages to be secured upon delivery.

We think Hyatt’s approach is clever, and hope it makes a difference in the number of thefts her family and neighbors are subject to. What do you think about the trash-filled boxes? Would you try it if things got out of hand with porch pirates in your neighborhood? Let us know what you think and any other ways you have used to deter porch pirate thefts in the comments.