Seattle inventor fighting "porch pirates" stalking on "package theft Wednesday"

SEATTLE, Wash. — Now that "Cyber Monday" is in the rear view mirror, police from Bellevue to Battle Ground are warning people to be on the lookout for thieves marking their calendars for "Package Theft Wednesday," which is the first day many of those Cyber Monday deliveries will be made.

A Seattle inventor who came up with an idea for a device with an app -- which notifies when packages delivered -- and when that package is moved, is now shipping the device all over the country as fast as his company can build them.

"People are even stealing packages on bikes. They're riding on their bikes going up to the porch, and stealing the packages," said Mike Grabham, who invented "The Package Guard" after he was victimized by package thieves.

In ten months the idea has gone from prototype to mass production.

The device (which is the size of a frisbee) when placed on a porch or doorway, is activated when a package is placed on top of it.

"The app on your phone alert you that you've had a package delivered," said Grabham.

If the package is lifted or moved before the app is disarmed, an extremely loud shrill alarm sounds until the person using the app deactivates it.

"It's really loud it's about 100 decibels, so your neighbors are also alerted," he said.

Grabham's vision is for thieves (he calls them "Porch Pirates") to regard the device as a very loud deterrent.

"If the thieves keep moving, when they see this, we win," he said."

Grabham says he can also envision a day when his product will work with Amazon's drone package deliveries of the future.

"We're already working on that," he said.

Cox Media Group