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ANSAS CITY, Mo. —  Charles Eisenmann has had packages stolen off his front porch, a problem he says has become more prevalent in recent years.

With the holidays coming up even more packages will be delivered — meaning even more could be stolen.

Online shopping is more popular than ever. Sadly, criminals know you’re expecting those packages on your doorstep.

But there are some options you have to prevent porch piracy this year.

“We had 10 donation boxes stolen off the front porch,” Eisenmann said.

He and his wife run a nonprofit called Evolve Outreach. They have about 25 or 30 donation boxes across the city.

“We collect warm items, blankets, sweaters, jackets, rain gear,” he said. “We do bare necessities bags, bottled water, Chapstick, little snacks. Try to provide some of these people living out on the street with just the bare necessities to get by.”

They had a large box full of the packaging they were getting ready to prepare — a box that was apparently very tempting for thieves.

“It was a large, heavy box, possibly a flat screen TV or something like that,” he said. “But unbeknownst to them, it was 10 donation boxes for the homeless in Kansas City.”

Eisenmann said they had a few packages stolen last year, too, so they got a ringing doorbell.

“We kind of just have to roll the dice,” he said. “We don’t have another facility to accept the packages that we get.”

But there are alternative options that might be useful if you’re expecting to ship and receive packages this holiday season.

You can customize your home delivery, giving you some control on when and where your packages arrive with UPS’s My Choice and Fed-Ex’s Delivery Manager.

And did you know you could ship and pick-up from your local Walgreens? Fed-Ex package pickup and drop-off is now available at more than 7,500 Walgreens locations in all 50 states.

The UPS Access Point Network allows you to pick up packages from a holding area in locations like convenience stores, grocers and even dry-cleaners.

If you’re willing to give the key to your house to the Amazon delivery driver through Amazon Key, the driver can leave all your packages inside your house — instead of on your front porch. But for now, KCK residents will be the only ones in the metro able to use this new service.

It’s a shame we need other options at all, but for people like Eisenmann, it’s nice to have options.

“People are desperate right now, and I can’t blame them for taking it, if they needed it,” he said. “They obviously needed it more than we do, but they don’t need it more than the homeless in Kansas City do.”