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Package theft and mailroom-related incidents have become an ever-growing problem for Multifamily Properties and Apartment Buildings in recent years.
According to Safewise’s 2025 Package Theft Report, 104 million package thefts occurred last year. Package theft affects 1 in 4 Americans, and that is nothing to take lightly.
As e-commerce continues to change how people shop, package theft can occur in many ways. However, intelligent security systems can prevent the vast majority of package thefts.
Package theft has become a serious concern for many individuals, with 44% of Americans admitting that they worry about their packages being stolen, as found through research by CapitalOne.
Imaginary scenario: Your property’s cameras have been monitoring an individual illegally entering the mailroom and subsequently stealing packages from the shelves. Hours later, a package is reported missing by a resident, and the security team reviews the cameras to see everything but has not been able to intervene until hours later.
For a multifamily property, this scenario prompts an important question:
Can your security system enable your team to act while package theft is unfolding?
Know how people access their packages, how they are protected, and how your property will respond to suspicious activity in these areas.
Surveillance cameras, locked access, secure storage of packages, and on-site monitoring are all critical to prevent package theft.
The areas of your property where packages are delivered and received are common shared spaces where many people can pass through near entrances to your property on a daily basis.
Thus, an intelligent security system must support and accommodate this activity while also making it harder for unauthorized individuals to access your property’s mailroom.
Multifamily vulnerabilities can enable package theft.
Package theft experienced by residents of apartments was 3.5 times that experienced by homeowners with security in the 3 months prior to the survey, according to Security.org.
A locked mailroom does not guarantee the safe delivery of your packages. Simply propping open the door of a locked mailroom for extended periods can put all packages stored in the vicinity at risk of theft.
A camera may capture the incident, but no one is aware of it until later.
Next, here's how you can best prevent package theft in your multifamily property and/or apartment complex.
Here is a six-point checklist for multifamily properties looking to reduce package-theft opportunities and protect packages delivered to their communities.
First, ensure your cameras cover the key areas of your package storage location and where people approach. These would be the mailroom entry and exit points, your parcel lockers, package delivery shelves and lobby or garage in front of the package delivery area. This is basic security coverage for the biggest risk to residents for package theft at your multifamily property.
While a wide view of the mailroom or package delivery area is important, most crime occurs within feet of a shelf. Thus, it is critical to ensure that all angles within the package delivery area are observed to ensure resident safety and to deter would-be criminals from entering the package delivery area.
The recording of incidents is not sufficient to provide adequate protection to packages. Incidents must also be noticed and appropriate action must be taken while the incident is taking place. This can be achieved by adding an active monitoring layer to existing cameras with AI.
28% of the survey respondents in 2025 Package Theft Report utilize outdoor security cameras with features including motion detection and AI to help safeguard deliveries. The statistics above only serve to measure adoption, not effectiveness.
CCTV in the package storage area means nothing if there is no action taken on detection of an incident.
The visibility of the cameras on package delivery areas provides a means to intervene on incidents which are detected by the active monitoring solution. An incident which is detected is viewed by a monitoring team, and if required by the security procedures of the property, action is taken in response to the incident.
Once active monitoring is set up for a package area or mailroom, this type of security can detect an incident before an individual even enters the area where the packages are stored. For example, someone could force entry into an apartment, or try to enter a restricted section of the property, and active monitoring can flag these types of incidents and alert a monitoring center for investigation.
Verification of the individual in question is paramount to being able to differentiate between a package thief and a resident unboxing a package of several boxes or alternatively a person delivering a package to a resident.
Incorporate cameras with speakers. The ability to communicate with individuals on property via audio from the monitor allows for talkdowns of individuals attempting to enter restricted package areas as well as issue of a warning to individuals transporting packages through non-authorized areas.
Consider this scenario:
One individual, unknown to the property, enters the restricted package area through the secured door. However, the door had been left open by another resident. An active AI monitoring solution identifies the incident and delivers an Automated AI Talkdown or a live manual operator-led talkdown via the speakers in the package area. The Security Operations team monitor the individual and leave the property.
Automated AI Talkdowns as well as live manual talkdowns can be played through the speakers to alert individuals. The system can also determine what type of alert or message to play based on your company policies and procedures.
Test the audibility of speakers within the confines of the package area and keep in mind that a speaker placed in a lobby may not have sufficient coverage to reach the back of a closed mailroom. Also, be aware that audio intervention requires an escalation path should the alert not prompt the individual to cease their actions.
An intelligent access system restricts entry to authorized individuals, including items left for delivery which have been granted temporary access (e.g. as part of a “left for delivery” feature).
Pay attention to the route from the entrance of a property to the package delivery area of a property, including garages and service areas. Identify what access control systems are in place to prevent unauthorized access and how they can be improved to better manage access from entrance of a property to delivery of a package to a mailroom.
Inspect the door closers and locks, delete any unused credentials and check the doors that are always open.
Be aware of ‘tailgating ’, by which people follow others through access-controlled doors. The casual intruder is smart enough to try and gain entry when someone else is passing through, whether at the main entrance or within the property itself. Using cameras to monitor access points helps you understand what has happened when an incident is reported.
Review with the Property Team the provision of adequate lighting around entrances to Package Areas, on shelving, around signs and in paths leading to Package Areas, 24/7. The greater the visibility of a location at night, the lesser the risk of theft and the better equipped staff and remote operators will be to manage an incident should it occur.
Testing the performance and health of your cameras to see if they are functioning correctly as opposed to simply assuming that more light is the answer is better. Reflections, backlighting, and sharp transitions between very light and very dark areas of the room can all affect how good or bad your recorded video will look and thus impact your ability to investigate an incident.
Blind spots also need to be checked for after maintenance and temporary changes to the room have been completed. It is also important to ensure that items such as shelves, packaging, and mailroom signage are not blocking the views of the cameras.
17% of respondents to the 2025 Package Theft Survey had utilized smart lighting or motion activated lights to prevent package theft.
It is often night when intruders take action in properties. 12am-6am is the highest chance to catch an incident happening in a property, based on our research.
For properties that are staffed during the day but are unoccupied at night, packages can pose a risk of theft for long periods of time. Properties with daytime security can implement around-the-clock monitoring and response through their security provider.
Keep footage, information, and response details from the time an incident occurs for as long as necessary. Review footage, information, and response details from past incidents to determine if there are repeated entries through particular points and take steps to improve security to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future.
Tracking incidents, even after the fact, can also provide valuable information to help a property management company identify recurring problems in order to target solutions to fix them and reduce the frequency of future incidents in order to help lower claims and liability.
Reminding residents to pick up their deliveries as soon as possible can also help combat package theft. The amount of time that a delivered package is left unattended in a shared area of a building can be greatly reduced by implementing such a system. USPS (U.S. Postal Inspection Service) recommends that packages be picked up promptly, or that alternate delivery such as hold at post office or office delivery be chosen when the resident is away.
Many multifamily properties already have cameras covering mailrooms, package areas, and other building entrances. Hakimo’s multifamily security solution is designed to work with these cameras and add a layer of AI-powered monitoring, human verification, and incident response.
Our AI Operator is able to catch theft or an unauthorized person in your package room within seconds. The AI then follows the rules of business you or your organization define and responds accordingly.
Automated AI Talkdowns and/or live manual Talkdowns via speakers that are compatible with Hakimo can also be triggered as part of the security coverage to notify of a problem and support property team members as needed. Additional functionality, such as sending an Incident Report that includes footage, a timeline of events, and relevant details regarding the response taken, also supports follow-up and serves as documentation for future reference as needed.
Once the cameras have been connected to the solution, property teams can connect the actions to the events as they occur. The property team must confirm that all necessary views exist, all necessary detections are supported, all necessary speakers are connected and powered, and that all necessary people have been assigned to respond in these areas.
Every week we post the “Catch Of The Week” of an interesting incident. This time we look at a mailroom that got caught by Hakimo’s AI-powered security monitoring.
An unauthorized individual is found in the mailroom. They are trying to open a secured door.
The moment the AI caught the incident in the mailroom was within minutes of it happening. Just a few minutes after that, the police arrived, apprehended the individual, and removed them from the premises. The mailroom was secure.
Early detection combined with an appropriate and timely response prevented a potential theft of packages from occurring.
Prevent Package Theft by securing the storage of your deliveries, by controlling access to them and by monitoring them with sufficient cameras. Connecting this surveillance to adequate response is then the heart of effective prevention of Package Theft.
Yes, there are many ways in which security cameras can prevent package theft. This is especially true when the monitoring can identify suspicious activity and respond within seconds to protect the packages in storage. This would also be applicable when connecting an existing security camera system with a monitoring and response provider.
Securing the package delivery areas and setting up monitoring after hours and responding to incidents is important for protecting an apartment building or multifamily property from package theft.
When implementing security at a mailroom or package storage area, Hakimo can work with you to integrate with your existing cameras at that location. We complete a review of the cameras that you currently use to ensure that the cameras are compatible with Hakimo and that the image quality is good enough to use for monitoring. In addition, we also review the placement of the cameras as well as the coverage area to ensure that all areas of interest are fully covered. Finally, audio talkdowns require speakers that are compatible with Hakimo and that are positioned to cover the mailroom or package storage area where the talkdown will occur.
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