SAVANNAH, Ga., (WSAV) — Whether you call them porch pirates, package thieves or just plain crooks. Theft of merchandise from front porches is a common problem, especially this time of year.

Many think it’s convenient to have a package delivered  to their front door and left on the front porch. But the bad guys see that convenience as an opportunity to commit a crime.

It is the season- of gift giving, wrapping, and last but not least online shopping. Millions are taking to the internet to spend hundreds, even thousands of dollars for gifts to place under  the tree.

“This is the time of year that everyone goes out, they get presents for loved ones, and like you said, thousands of dollars of presents within a home,”  Bluffton Police Department, Lieutenant, Joe Babkiewicz, says.

All those packages can be easy prey to crooks just waiting for the chance to swipe them once they are delivered to your front porch.

According to Package Guard- 11 million owners have had a package stolen in the last year.

Police are offering simple solutions if you’re traveling out of town or if you aren’t home at the time of your delivery.

“Family, relatives, friends, have them stop by, have them pick up the mail too — because a lot of people will see the mail stocked up in the mailbox and they’ll know somebody’s not at the house at that time,” Babkiewicz says.

In October- UPS expected to ship 750 million packages during the holidays. 53% of those receiving packages worry about them being left outside their home. Package Guard states that 74% of packages are stolen during the day when homeowners are at work.

But – carriers like USPS, UPS, and FEDEX offer a service where you can track your merchandise, change the delivery time, and even arrange to have it dropped off at a leasing office.

Some homeowners are getting creative with ways to keep crooks away by installing cameras, motion sensors and even booby traps to stop the thefts.

According to Custom Security Rep, Robin Blaire, “That’s been hot this year, where you can actually yourself go monitor the packages that are being delivered when they get dropped off…You can actually sit there and talk to the person even when you’re at work.”