The Amazon box sat in front of the doorway Tuesday afternoon — perhaps just one more Christmas gift of the season. But nearby, St. Paul police waited.

With an increase in package thefts during the holiday season, police were seeing if anyone would steal this package. It had a small GPS device inside and, if the box were stolen, police planned to track and arrest the perpetrator.

Sgt. Dave Strecker saw a couple of cars drive by slowly — he doesn’t know if they were just taking their time or checking out the box, but no one moved toward it. After about 90 minutes, Strecker retrieved the package and they decided to try another day.

St. Paul police are using “bait packages” for the first time and, while they’re not giving away details about when and where Operation Drop Box will be in effect, their work is not secret.

“We want would-be thieves to know we have the technology and maybe they’ll think twice before stealing someone’s package off their front step,” said Steve Linders, a St. Paul police spokesman.

A NATIONAL PROBLEM

After seeing so many package thefts last year, St. Paul police started tracking them in a separate theft category this year. They received 197 reports of mail or package thefts from Jan. 1 to Monday.

Sgt. Jason Urbanski, who has been assigned to the department’s Central District Investigations unit since February, said he saw almost no reports of mail or package thefts until the end of October. Since then, he figures there’s been an average of two or three a day — and those are just in one of St. Paul’s three police districts.

“I think more people are just ordering stuff online,” Urbanski said. “It’s the convenience.”

At the same time, he believes people are out looking for packages to steal. Police have heard about people following delivery trucks and then immediately jumping out to steal the box after it’s left on a door stoop, Strecker said.

A company commissioned by comparison-shopping service insuranceQuotes.com surveyed 1,000 people nationally and extrapolated that 26 million Americans have had a holiday package stolen from their home. That would be nearly one in 12 Americans.

Other police departments have been using bait packages, including in Edina, New Mexico, Oregon and California.

In Jersey City, across the Hudson River from New York, the police department is teaming up with Amazon to install doorbell cameras and plant dummy boxes at homes around the city to catch thieves in the act or as they make their getaway.

ST. PAUL’S EFFORT IS CITYWIDE

Package thefts are a problem across St. Paul neighborhoods, police said, and they’ll be using the bait boxes across the city during the holiday season. They selected the West Side on Tuesday because of other mail thefts in the area.

Police said they will only leave the boxes with homeowners’ permission. With officers waiting nearby, out of sight, they’ll be ready if someone steals it — they have an iPad with them to track the box’s location.

“It’s sit and wait and be at the right place at the right time,” Strecker said.

Under regular circumstances, it can be difficult to catch a mail thief in the act, but it helps when people are watching out for each other, Urbanski said.

Last Wednesday, on George Street near Bellows Street, police responded to a report of a woman refusing to leave after a maintenance man encountered her inside a building.

The 31-year-old had a handful of mail and a package addressed to someone at the address, according to a mail theft charge filed against her. She told Urbanski she didn’t remember stealing the mail, and that she had been using methamphetamine and was awake for the last three days.

POLICE URGE PRECAUTIONS

St. Paul police have been using GPS tracking for about a decade, such as bait cars in attempts to catch auto thieves. But as the technology has become smaller, police have found other uses in recent years, including on bait bicycles, Linders said.

Inside Tuesday’s box was a broken laptop, but it could have been a handful of rocks — it doesn’t matter what’s inside because mail theft is a felony in Minnesota, regardless of the content of the package.

As two investigators and two officers waited and watched on the West Side on Tuesday afternoon, a FedEx truck pulled up to a different home, and a driver jogged out and delivered a package. A woman immediately opened the door and brought it inside.

“That’s a prime example of how to do it — track your package, know when it’s going to be there to receive it,” said Sgt. Mike Ernster, a St. Paul police spokesman.

If that’s not possible, police suggest people have packages delivered to their work, ask neighbors who will be home if a box can be delivered to them, or find a business that allows people to have packages delivered there.

Police say home-security systems with doorbell cameras are great for capturing photos of thieves, but they caution against people taking matters into their own hands. Though it can be tempting to booby-trap a box, for example, you might be the one who ends up in trouble if the thief is injured, police say.

This report includes information from the Associated Press.