The holiday season is more than just the most wonderful time of the year — it also brings the most package thefts.

“Every year between Thanksgiving and Christmas, there’s always an increase in larcenies, whether it be package theft off doors, whether it be robberies out in the street, commercial retail theft,” said Lt. Greg Bello, of the Rochester Police Department. 

What You Need To Know

  • Earlier this month, a video went viral of porch pirates using a Wi-Fi jammer in Texas
  • The technology was originally developed for military and law enforcement purposes to disrupt enemy communications, but now criminals are using them to disrupt Wi-Fi signals and therefore impact doorbell camera footage
  • The jammers broadcast out on the same radio frequency that most Wi-Fi networks do, reusliting in the cutting off or slowing down of video

And for some, the use of Wi-Fi jammers may make it harder to catch these thieves.

Kevin Cleary from the University at Buffalo says the jammers broadcast out on the same radio frequency that most Wi-Fi networks do.

“So picture you and I are having this conversation right now in this fairly empty room. But picture now where it’s loaded with students and everybody is talking over each other, it’d be a lot more difficult for you and I had to be able to hear each other,” said Cleary, clinical associate professor of management science and systems for the University at Buffalo School of Management.

The technology can slow down or cut off video or cut off notifications.

“Just kind of block that signal temporarily enough that then that push notification no longer then is sent out to the owner of that home or to whoever installed that camera,” Cleary said.

But are they effective? According to Cleary, it depends.

“In some cases, the Wi-Fi jammer will be ineffective. It’s not going to work,” he said.

Since Wi-Fi jammers are illegal, whether or not they will work depends on where the thieves purchased them and whether or not that purchase was a scam.

According to the Rochester Police Department, they haven’t seen the technology used in the Western New York area, and when it comes to thieves who break doorbell cameras, that doesn’t help them.

“We’ve had instances where thieves haven’t been the smartest, that they’ve stolen or broken those cameras off the front doorbell, and all that does is give us a better view of that person’s face, because it’s stored offsite. It’s not stored on the device itself,” Bello said.

Both Cleary and Bello emphasized it’s important to have multiple layers of defense strategy when it comes to protecting your packages; things like motion-activated lights, alarms on your house and just grabbing packages and taking them inside as quickly as possible.

Doorbell cameras are meant to be one layer of protection, but even without working Wi-Fi jammers, the cameras alone can’t stop your packages from getting stolen.