With Christmas less than two weeks away, holiday shopping has significantly ramped up, and so have the number of parcels being delivered.

For the second year, many Albertans are opting to do their shopping online in an effort to avoid holiday crowds during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Corporal Troy Savinkoff with the Cochrane RCMP says it's extremely common to see an increase in parcel thefts during this time of the year.

"We know from previous years that this type of crime really gets bad around this time of year," explains Savinkoff. "People are driving around proactively looking for those parcels to steal them."

He says it only takes one or two of these porch pirates to cover a lot of ground, and they were out in full swing last Christmas.

 "The reality is with this type of crime it only takes one or two offenders to be active, to victimize a very large amount of people," explains Savinkoff. "Last year we had a particular issue with it, especially in areas of like Bearspaw, our rural areas -- and as well as in town. "

Savinkoff says that when packages are left unattended for a prolonged period, they make for easy pickings for thieves in the area and he strongly recommends taking extra precautions.

"You could have a deck box on your front porch advising [for the] deliveries to be put in there so it's not quite in view," explains Svinkoff. "You could also try to schedule your drop-offs at a time that you're home and make sure to respond when they ring the doorbell to pick up your parcel."

Savinkoff says that that people tend to underestimate the lengths that thieves will go. He says quite often the delivery vehicles are easy to identify and will be followed to their delivery destination.

He recommends having a friend or neighbour pick up packages for you if you can't be there to receive them.

Savinkoff says that so far this year, the RCMP has seen fewer parcel thefts but it's still happening. He encourages any victims or witnesses of porch theft to report stolen packages to your nearest detachment.