THUNDER BAY — Karen Morrill was tired of porch pirates, so she did something about it.
Morrill is the owner of The Dog House and More, located in Westfort. She said she has heard about too many people get a packages stolen from their doorstep.
“I just felt really bad that this was happening and I thought, we can do something about it," she said.
She decided to start allowing people to ship packages to her store, and pay $5 to pick them up.
“That (money) is going to one of our upcoming local dog clubs that we have just started. I thought, it's going to benefit the dog club, it's going to benefit the public. It's a win, win situation."
Morrill created a Facebook post on Sunday, pitching her idea, and received many comments and interest.
“We started with a couple of people and I decided that we may as well do it for more and help the neighbourhood. We can take people's packages in here with our address, they can be dropped off, we will sort them keep them here and people can pick them up. Therefore, they don't go missing.”
Within an hour there were over 400 likes and about 100 comments, Morrill said.
“People really thought it was a great idea. I really didn't expect for it to go that fast, but it did.”
Morrill said they have a store, a grooming space and a training facility, and closer to Christmas they shut down the training facility.
“Our classes are coming to an end until until January. So, we have all that space that we can use to keep packages for people and make sure that they're in alphabetical order, et cetera to make it easier for us to sort them.
“I just don't want to see people's Christmas packages go missing. it's not cool,” she said.
Morrill said they have thought about continuing on with this after the holiday season.
“We'll see how it goes. It is a first time for us, so I'm sure there'll be some hiccups. But if things go smoothly, we do have a lot of space in the back. I'm more than willing to help people do it,"she said. "Because I don't think this problem of package stealing is going to end anytime soon.”
