Georgia Makes Porch Piracy, Mail Theft a Felony
Supporters say thefts have been rising, with the US postal service in 2020 receiving over 20,000 reports of mail theft from citizens and an additional 95,000 reports of mail not being received.
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A new law in Georgia is tackling the issues of porch piracy and mail theft by classifying certain degrees of the crimes as felonies, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The law creates two felony categories that are punishable by up to five years in prison: theft by possession of stolen mail is committed when an individual steals mail addressed to three or more different mailboxes or addresses and possesses a minimum of 10 pieces of stolen mail, and porch piracy is defined as removing three or more pieces of mail from the porch, steps or immediate vicinity of any dwelling of three or more different mailboxes or addresses.
The stiffer penalties are intended to deter thieves that, according to State Rep. Bonnie Rich, who sponsored the bill, have been on the rise, with the postal service in 2020 receiving over 20,000 reports of mail theft from citizens and an additional 95,000 reports of mail not being received that the U.S. Postal Inspector suspected were an actual theft. Critics, however, remain skeptical of the law and argue that it will result in a self-fulfilling prophecy where numbers of cases increase simply because there is a mechanism to track the low-level entry crime.
