After conducting an industry leading package theft report last year, Shorr Packaging (shorr.com) has released a 2018 report on package theft that is focused on Amazon package theft in cities across the United States. As Amazon and other online retailers continue to see record sales each year, the amount of doorsteps and mail rooms across the country remains highly vulnerable to package theft. 

Last year, Shorr Packaging found that over 31 percent of all Americans had experienced package theft and that number is expected to increase in 2018. In its latest report, the company analyzed Google search trends in the 50 largest cities across the U.S. to see where Amazon package theft is most concentrated. 

The methodology is further explained: “In July 2018, we used Google AdWords to assess the rolling monthly averages for the search term “Amazon package stolen,” in the 50 most populous U.S. cities, according to the 2017 U.S. Census estimates. We then quantified the prevalence of searches by calculating searches per capital (as well as the inverse of that radio, persons per search).”

Listed below are the U.S. cities were Amazon packages are stolen the most:

  1. San Francisco, CA
  2. Seattle, WA
  3. Minneapolis, MN
  4. Boston, MA
  5. Portland, OR
  6. Washington, D.C.
  7. Oakland, CA
  8. Baltimore, MD
  9. Atlanta, GA
  10. Sacramento, CA
  11. Denver, CO
  12. San Jose, CA
  13. Chicago, IL
  14. Philadelphia, PA
  15. Los Angeles, CA
  16. Miami, FL
  17. Long Beach, CA
  18. Las Vegas, NV
  19. Austin, TX
  20. New Orleans, LA
  21. San Diego, CA
  22. New York, NY
  23. Houston, TX
  24. Tucson, AZ
  25. Dallas, TX
  26. Albuquerque, NM
  27. Charlotte, NC
  28. Indianapolis, IN
  29. Columbus, OH
  30. Milwaukee, WI
  31. Louisville, KY
  32. Nashville, TN
  33. Wichita, KS
  34. Arlington, TX
  35. Tulsa, OK
  36. Phoenix, AZ
  37. Fort Worth, TX
  38. Jacksonville, FL
  39. Virginia Beach, VA
  40. Colorado Springs, CO
  41. Raleigh, NC
  42. Omaha, NE
  43. Kansas City, MO
  44. Mesa, AZ
  45. San Antonio, TX
  46. Fresno, CA
  47. Oklahoma City, OK
  48. Memphis, TN
  49. Detroit, MI
  50. El Paso, TX


Report Analysis

There are several trends worth noting when diving into the data from the report further. The first is the prevalence of many of the nation’s largest tech hubs at the top of the list. San Francisco (#1), Seattle (#2), Boston (#4) and Washington, D.C. (#6) all make the top ten list of the cities with the most Amazon packages stolen. 

The search trends data from the report was also compared against results from the FBI for city-based larceny-theft rates and found that many cities with high larceny-theft rates also showed high search prevalence for “Amazon package stolen. Only a few cities on the list has both low rates for larceny-theft search and Amazon-related search terms.

To see the full report, check out the graphics.