For many in Bushwick, Brooklyn, package deliveries have become less of a convenience and more of a gamble. What should be a straightforward experience of ordering online and receiving your purchase at your doorstep has turned into a source of daily anxiety. Across online communities like Reddit, Nextdoor, and neighborhood Facebook groups, residents are vocalizing their frustration, sharing stories that reveal just how entrenched the problem has become.
One resident recounted a dreamlike situation: packages pilfered from within a supposedly "locked" entrance to their apartment complex, not once, but over and over. “It’s gotten to the point,” they wrote, “where I’m afraid to have anything delivered to my home.” Another recounted how a 30-pound bag of cat food vanished just minutes after a delivery notification hit their phone, suggesting that the thief might have been a neighbor or someone watching the building like a hawk.
These reports are not unique. The opinion of Bushwick residents is unanimous: porch pirates are a resilient and evolving menace. They don't only go after big, valuable boxes, but also groceries, pet food, and personal care products aren't off-limits either. How fast and brazen the thefts have been that residents now feel helpless, wondering if online shopping convenience is even worth it.
Confronted with ongoing losses, Bushwick residents are taking things into their own hands,literally in some cases. Some have attempted leaving "bait packages" containing glitter, paint, or even foul-smelling material in hopes of scaring off burglars or at least making the crime a costly mistake. Others are organizing with neighbors to serve as package sentries, grabbing deliveries as soon as they arrive.
Although these grassroots initiatives reflect the strength and ingenuity of Bushwick, they are, best-case scenario, Band-Aids. It's not always easy to coordinate pickup times, particularly for people who have late work shifts or whose commute takes hours. And although a glitter bomb creates a great YouTube video, it doesn't do much to retrieve the stolen items or deter future thefts.
Missed deliveries are just another source of frustration, fueling the fire. Time-constrained and quota-conscious delivery drivers occasionally leave packages in insecure places, behind an unsecured gate, in a lobby open to the public, or just plain out in the open on the stoop. Even when packages aren't pilfered, they can get damaged by the elements or abused in transport.
It's a vicious cycle that leaves most stuck: stay at home all day to get packages, depend on a neighbor's benevolence, or risk losing packages altogether.
That is where third-party package receiving services, such as Stowfly, are coming in to make a difference. Rather than engage in a high-risk game of delivery roulette, citizens can choose to receive their packages at a secure, manned facility within their own neighborhood. Stowfly teams up with neighborhood businesses like coffee shops, convenience stores, and more, to offer secure holding of deliveries until residents are able to retrieve them at their convenience.
This method solves several major problems simultaneously:
For Bushwick, where creativity and grit converge, Stowfly's approach is right at home. It combines convenience with community engagement, taking what was once a daily headache and making it more a matter of course, less stressful.
In a community where pilfered packages are as ubiquitous as street art on brick walls, the transition from response-based initiatives to proactive measures may be what residents have long hoped for. And although glitter bombs may earn likes on the internet, companies such as Stowfly are assisting Bushwick in reclaiming something far more precious: peace of mind.