USPS offers tips to protect holiday package deliveries

The US Postal Service is encouraging everyone expecting a package this holiday season to take important steps to make sure thieves don’t get them first.

A Bay Area post office representative tells KION that 900 million packages nationwide will be delivered by them from now until Christmas Eve. That’s a 50 million increase from last year.

They recommend doing things like letting a neighbor or friend know to look out for a package or having it sent to work instead of home.

The USPS is also pushing a tool called “Informed Delivery”.

It can be found online or you can download the app.

It offers several package safety measures with just a few clicks.

“[It can] do things like have it redirected, have it sent to a different address if you want,” says Augustine Ruiz, with the Postal Service, “You can also have the post office hold your package for you for pickup and you can actually instruct a carrier to leave it in a certain place.”

If you know or suspect a package you were supposed to receive has been stolen and it’s delivered by the Postal Service, you should call their inspection hotline at 877-876-2455.

To sign up for “Informed Delivery” click here.