[VIDEO] Don’t Advertise Your Gifts to Thieves: Durham Police Program Offers Solution

DURHAM, N.C. – When electronics boxes and other gift packaging are placed curbside for disposal on collection day, passer-byers (and potential thieves) are inadvertently informed of valuables in your home. Television, computer and gaming system boxes generally attract the most interest. So here’s a tip from the Durham Police Department:  “Don’t publicize the gifts you receive for the delight and enjoyment of wishful thieves. Instead of putting boxes curbside this holiday, use a designated recycling site to throw boxes away!”

Durham Police Department’s ‘No Perched Packages’ holiday campaign encourages residents to break down large electronics boxes and other recyclable packaging and transport them to a recycling center instead of placing them curbside outside your home for collection. The crime prevention initiative is a partnership of the police department, City of Durham Solid Waste Management and City of Durham Parks and Recreation. In 2018, the ‘No Perched Packages’ campaign yielded two and one-half tons of cardboard.

This year the ‘No Perched Packages’ campaign  will run December 20, 2018 through January 8, 2019 at these four recreation centers:

·       Long Meadow Park – 917 Liberty Street (near baseball field)

·       Walltown Park Recreation Center – 1308 W. Club Blvd.

·       Morreene Road Recreation Center – 1102 Morreene Road

·       Campus Hills Recreation Center – 2000 S. Alston Avenue

If Transport of Boxes is Not Feasible…
Another strategy is to break down boxes and leave them inside your home until your garbage and recycling collection day. Cardboard should be flattened and should fit inside your blue recycling cart. Cardboard that cannot fit inside your blue recycling cart, must be flattened and a scheduled collection arranged by placing a call to the City’s Durham One Call Center, (919) 560-1200. Residents may also take large volumes of flattened cardboard to the City’s Waste Disposal and Recycling Center located at 2115 E. Club Boulevard. At this location, residents (not commercial entities) can also safely dispose of electronics, appliances, household hazardous waste and trash.

The Solid Waste Management Department will be closed on December 25 and January 1. The revised collection schedule for all curbside services reflects a one-day delay in garbage, recycling, yard waste, and bulky services collections for all customers – except regular Monday customers. Monday customers will receive collections on Mondays, December 24 and 31 as regularly scheduled. For more information about items accepted for curbside collections as well as how to sign up for collection day alerts and reminders for holiday service changes, visit the department’s webpage.