House Bill 50 is a redundant, duplicative bill that seeks to create a redundant, duplicative crime. It is already illegal to steal things. It is already a crime to steal mail and packages. This bill seeks to make it illegal to steal packages from your stoop, or doorstep, or porch. But such an action is already illegal.
So why is this bill necessary? To send a message that somebody is doing something. That is all. And to create another crime category so a prosecutor can pile on the charges.
Under this bill, a first offense of mail theft is a class A misdemeanor unless the value of the stolen property is $1,500 or more, in which case it is a class G felony.
A second offense of mail theft, within the previous 5 years is a class G felony, regardless of the value of the stolen property.
Where a victim is 62 years of age or older, an adult who is impaired, or a person with a disability, a first offense of mail theft is a class G felony unless the value of the stolen property is $1,500 or more, in which case it is a class F felony.
A second offense of mail theft within the previous 5 years is a class F felony, regardless of the value of the property stolen.
Where the value of the property is more than $50,000 but less than $100,000, mail theft is a class D felony.
Where the value of the property is $100,000 or more, mail theft is a class B felony.
Upon conviction, monetary restitution is required and a sentencing judge shall consider the imposition of community service.
I pity the poor law student that has to memorize all these levels of classifications and exemptions, like the fourteen degrees of rape on the Criminal Law exam.
| House Bill 50 – Stealing your Amazon Packages | Currrent Status – Out of Committee 1/19/23 |
| House Sponsors – Williams, Bolden, Bush, Cooke, Heffernan, Matthews, Osienski // Ramone, Short, Shupe, Smith | Senate Sponsors – Walsh, Sokola // Hocker, Pettyjohn, Richardson, Wilson |
| House Yes Votes – | Senate Yes Votes – |
| House No Votes – | Senate No Votes – |
| House Absents or Not Voting – | Senate Absent or Not Voting – |
What we really need is effort to help catch these porch pirates. Or — even better — a uniform way to secure packages at the doors that need that. You can have Amazon packages (of a certain size) ssent to a hub to retrieve them yourself. Packages from other vendors are still at some risk.