Package Stolen From Your Porch? What to Do and Who Pays

Your tracking page says Delivered, and the porch is empty. If a quick search and a day or two of waiting don’t turn it up, treat the package as stolen from your porch and go to the store you bought it from, not the delivery company. The store is the carrier’s customer, so it’s the one that can send a replacement or file a claim.

If the store won’t make it right, a credit card dispute is your backstop, though your card issuer can turn it down if the package was delivered as agreed. Report the theft to the police either way, because the store or the issuer may ask for the report number.

What should you do first when a package says delivered but isn’t there?

Search before you report it. Check the delivery photo if there’s one, the address on your order, and every spot a driver might use. Ask the people you live with and your neighbors. Then give it time. Amazon says to wait 48 hours, because packages are sometimes scanned as delivered before they arrive.

Places worth checking, from Amazon’s checklist (opens in a new tab) and USPS’s (opens in a new tab):

• The delivery photo and the address on the order. If the photo shows someone else’s door, the package was misdelivered rather than stolen, and that helps if you dispute the charge later.
• Around the house. The back door, the garage, the mailbox, and any spot out of the weather or out of view from the street.
• Your delivery instructions. If you asked for a side door or a parcel box, the driver may have left it there.
• Your household and neighbors, in case someone took it in for you.
• The office or mailroom, if you live in an apartment building (more on that below).

Who should you contact, the store or the carrier?

The store, in almost every case. Whoever paid for shipping is the carrier’s customer, and that’s usually the store, which is why UPS tells recipients to contact the seller. Amazon orders split two ways, depending on whether Amazon or a third-party seller shipped the order.

Amazon

Amazon’s help page for a missing package that shows as delivered (opens in a new tab) gives two routes, depending on who shipped the order. If Amazon did, contact Customer Service within 30 days of the expected delivery date. The page says “We’ll do everything we can to help,” though it doesn’t promise a refund or a replacement.

If a third-party seller sold and shipped it, message the seller first. If that goes nowhere, the A-to-z Guarantee (opens in a new tab) lets you file a claim with Amazon once tracking shows the package as delivered and you contacted the seller more than 48 hours earlier. The claim has to go in within 90 days of the last possible delivery date.

USPS

USPS can look for the package, but it won’t pay for a theft. If more than one postal business day has passed since the delivered scan, USPS says (opens in a new tab) you can file a service request asking it to look for the package, and a Missing Mail search (opens in a new tab) can start 7 days after the mailing date. Priority Mail, Priority Mail Express and Ground Advantage include up to $100 of insurance (opens in a new tab), but USPS doesn’t pay claims (opens in a new tab) for a loss that happened after delivery. A package taken from your porch is a loss after delivery, so the refund has to come from the store.

UPS

UPS’s tracking help (opens in a new tab) says to check around your doors, porch, patio and garage, and with your neighbors, and then: “If you still can’t find it, contact the seller to start a claim.” A recipient can also file a claim (opens in a new tab) as a guest on ups.com, within 60 days of the scheduled delivery date. But UPS sends claim payments to the shipper, and some shippers don’t allow claims from recipients.

FedEx

FedEx’s help page (opens in a new tab) starts with the photo proof of delivery, where your shipment has one, and says you can report the package missing from the tracking page (Manage Delivery, then Report Missing Package). Its claims page (opens in a new tab) then gives recipients three choices: ask the store for a replacement, ask the store to file a claim for you, or file one yourself. A claim for a lost package has to be filed within nine months of the ship date.

Should you file a police report?

Yes. It’s free, and a store, card issuer or insurer may ask for the report number. Call your police department’s non-emergency line, or file online if your department takes reports that way. Have the order details and the tracking page ready, and offer any doorbell or building camera footage.

If the Postal Service delivered the package, also report the theft to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (opens in a new tab), online or at 1-877-876-2455. Mail theft is a federal crime that carries up to five years in prison (opens in a new tab), and postal inspectors investigate it. A package left by UPS, FedEx or Amazon’s own drivers isn’t mail, so its theft is a matter for local police under state law.

Some states have made package theft a crime of its own. Texas did in 2019, with a mail theft law (opens in a new tab) that covers packages from any delivery company. In Congress, the Porch Pirates Act would make it a federal crime to steal a package that a private carrier has delivered. Versions were introduced in 2022, 2024 and 2025, but neither the House nor the Senate has passed one. The latest, H.R. 6924 (opens in a new tab), went to the House Judiciary Committee in December 2025.

Who pays for a package stolen after it’s delivered?

No federal law decides that. State law sets a default rule (opens in a new tab) that a store’s terms of sale can change, and those terms can put the risk on you as soon as the store hands the package to a carrier. Amazon’s do. Its Conditions of Use (opens in a new tab) say that for purchases from Amazon, “the risk of loss and title for such items pass to you upon our delivery to the carrier.”

Ask the store anyway, in writing, and keep its reply. If it says no, the card dispute below is your next step. A short message is enough:

My order [number] shows as delivered on [date], but it wasn’t at my door and I believe it was stolen. I’ve checked with my household and neighbors, and I’ve reported it to the police (report number [number]). Please send a replacement or refund my [amount].

Two Canadian provinces work differently. In Quebec and British Columbia, the seller usually bears the loss, and our Canadian guide covers each province.

Can a credit card dispute get your money back?

It can. Under federal law, a charge for something that wasn’t delivered as agreed counts as a billing error, and you can dispute it with your card issuer. The issuer investigates first, though, and the rules (opens in a new tab) let it deny the dispute if it finds the package was “actually delivered, mailed, or sent as agreed.” So your case is strongest when the package went to the wrong address, or was left at the door after you asked for a signature.

The FTC’s guidance (opens in a new tab) sets out the timing:

• Dispute it in writing within 60 days of the date the first statement with the charge was sent to you. The clock starts with that statement, not with the theft.
• The issuer has 30 days to acknowledge your dispute in writing.
• It has two billing cycles to resolve it, and never more than 90 days after it gets your letter.

Send the issuer what you have: the order confirmation, any delivery instructions you gave, the delivery photo, your messages with the store and the police report number.

What about a debit card?

The protection is weaker. The FTC says debit cards don’t carry the same protections as credit cards, so you may not be able to get a refund for a package that never arrived. Some banks offer protection anyway, so call yours and ask.

Will homeowners or renters insurance cover a stolen package?

It might, but only if the package cost more than your deductible. One state regulator, the Maryland Insurance Administration (opens in a new tab), says package theft may be covered under a homeowners or renters policy, but that a theft claim is likely subject to your deductible, and that many smaller items may fall below it. Call your insurer only about an expensive order.

What if your package was stolen from an apartment building?

Look in the mailroom, the package lockers and the leasing office first, since staff or a neighbor may have taken it in. If it isn’t there, ask management whether a camera covers the lobby or the mail area, and ask for the footage for your police report. Then go to the store, the same as for a porch. Your lease may say who’s responsible for packages left in shared spaces, so read it before you ask the landlord to cover the loss.

How can you stop the next package from being stolen?

Have it delivered somewhere a thief can’t reach it, especially in December. A pickup counter, a parcel locker, your workplace or a neighbor who’s home all beat an empty porch.

• Pick it up instead. Many stores and carriers let you send an order to a pickup counter or a locker.
• Ask for a signature on anything expensive. The driver then can’t leave it on the porch, and if one does anyway, the package wasn’t delivered as agreed.
• Get alerts. USPS Informed Delivery (opens in a new tab) is free and emails you a daily preview of the mail and packages on their way, so you know when to watch for one.
• Leave delivery instructions asking for packages to go somewhere out of sight from the street.

Buying it again before the refund comes through

A card dispute can take two billing cycles, and if you need the gift by the holidays, you may not be able to wait that long. If you buy it again in the meantime, you’re paying twice until the refund arrives, which is easier with some money set aside.

Lodavo is a free app that makes building that cushion more rewarding. The more you save, the more free tickets you get for weekly cash prize draws, and your money never leaves your own bank account. It’s already live in Canada, and you can join the US waitlist below.

No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited.

This page is general information, not legal advice. If a store or card issuer pushes back, quote the rules linked above.