Stopping Holiday Package Theft in Fort Worth: A Camera & Doorbell Guide

Why Package Theft Spikes Every November and December

Package theft follows shipping volume, and shipping volume in the DFW area climbs sharply starting the week before Thanksgiving and stays elevated through the end of December. Every extra delivery truck on a Fort Worth street is also an extra opportunity for someone driving the neighborhood specifically looking for boxes left unattended on porches during work hours.

Local police departments across Tarrant County consistently report package theft as one of the most common property crime complaints during this stretch, and it disproportionately hits homes without visible camera coverage. A porch package sitting in full view of the street for six or eight hours while residents are at work is simply an easier target than a house with an obvious camera and a doorbell that clearly announces recorded video.

The good news is that this is one of the most solvable security problems homeowners face, because the fix does not require a full-property camera system if budget is a concern this time of year. A focused doorbell and porch setup handles most of the risk on its own.

The Minimum Effective Setup: Doorbell Plus Porch Angle

A single, well-placed camera covering the front door and porch handles the majority of package theft incidents, since most porch pirates grab and go within seconds of a delivery rather than casing a property first. We install these two ways depending on the home: a hardwired video doorbell that replaces the existing doorbell wiring for continuous power and reliable recording, or a dedicated eave-mounted camera angled down at the porch when the door itself is recessed or poorly lit for a doorbell-level camera.

For a full breakdown of hardwired doorbell installation, including why we recommend hardwired over battery-powered consumer units for anything beyond casual use, see our Doorbell Camera Installation guide. The short version: battery units miss the first several seconds of motion while waking up, and their battery drains fast during high-traffic holiday weeks with a dozen deliveries a day.

Covering the Driveway and Curb, Not Just the Door

• Driveway-facing camera: catches delivery vehicles pulling up and any follow-vehicle behavior, where a second car trails a delivery truck through the neighborhood watching for drop-offs — an increasingly common pattern DFW police have flagged in recent years.

• Curb and street-facing angle: useful on corner lots and homes with long driveways where the porch camera alone cannot see a car slowing down or parking near the property.

• Side-yard and gate cameras: covers the secondary paths a thief might use to reach a side door or garage delivery drop, which some Fort Worth homeowners now request specifically for holiday-season package drops.

None of this requires a full commercial-grade system. For most single-family homes, two to four cameras covering the front door, driveway, and one side approach is enough to remove a home from the easy-target category.

Why Local NVR Recording Matters More During the Holidays

Cloud doorbell subscriptions become a real cost during a heavy delivery season if you are paying per-camera monthly fees, and worse, many consumer cloud plans only retain 30 days of clips or throttle video quality on the free tier — exactly the wrong tradeoff during the season when you most need clear, retrievable footage.

A local NVR setup records continuously to an on-site hard drive with no monthly fee and no clip-length limit, so footage from every delivery in November and December is still there in January if a dispute or police report comes up later. This is the same zero-monthly-fee approach we use across every Residential Security Camera Installation we do in Fort Worth, and it matters even more when camera usage spikes seasonally.

What to Do Beyond Cameras This Season

Cameras deter and document, but pairing them with a few habits closes most of the remaining gap. Requiring a signature or "leave with neighbor" delivery instruction for high-value packages, using a lockable delivery box or garage drop for recurring orders, and asking a neighbor to grab packages during multi-day trips all reduce the window a package sits exposed.

If you already have a Ring, Nest, or similar consumer camera at the door and want to add driveway or side-yard coverage without replacing what you have, we can usually integrate a hardwired NVR system alongside an existing doorbell rather than ripping it out — worth mentioning during a free on-site quote if budget or an existing setup is a factor.