CAPE CORAL, Fla. — It's the time of year where people are buying gifts and maybe even getting them delivered. It's also the time of year where porch pirates see more crimes of opportunity.
Cape Coral Police say they are out in full force making sure your homes and businesses are safe this holiday season.
"There's so much coming in, and there are people who will just drive around and look for potential openings, packages left on front doors and take them," said Officer Mercedes Simonds with the Cape Coral Police Department.
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She says there are things homeowners and business owners can do to protect themselves and their packages.
"You'll see us patrolling through neighborhoods and just looking around and scanning for anything that could potentially be wrong," she explained. "Obviously, we're going to ask neighbors to do the same thing in terms of porch pirates and things like that for this year."
They've already increase their presence in some of our popular shopping spots.
"When people see us, they see a deterrent," Simonds said. "So they're less likely to steal, cause disturbances, things like that, just to make sure that everybody's kind of kept in check."
The sight is a relief for shop employees.
"We're all small businesses. It's hard when you get, you know, when things get taken from you," said Dawn Spanton with Just Lovelee Boutique.
She says they've considered new security measures this holiday season because of the recent break-ins around the city.
"We have beefed up to our security a little bit, just to, you know, just the extra measures, cameras and whatnot that we didn't have before," Spanton explained. "We've just been monitoring more. We've been coming by more often and paying attention. We have, of course, we have other businesses here who are helping to watch and just being careful."
Spanton says it gives her relief to know officers will be in her business's neighborhood when she's not there.
Cape Coral Police say volunteers will check on your house, if you request it.
"They'll check your house morning, night, whatever, just to make sure that everything's good," Simonds said. "There's no windows broken, no strange cars in the driveway or anything like that, so just to make sure everything's safe and secure."
If you are going to be away for the holidays, Simonds suggests to have your neighbors bring your packages inside or delay the shipping, if possible.
