North Texas inventor unveils "smart mailbox" to combat porch pirates

A North Texas man has created what he calls the world's first smart mailbox.

Richard Prince II had two heart attacks and survived because he tried to sell packages of smart products, but that's when he had an epiphany: there's no smart technology to protect packages from porch pirates.

So, he created a mailbox that would hold your parcels and packages.

Anti-theft mailbox

Richard Prince II explained to FOX 4's Shaun Rabb just how his anti-theft mailbox works.

A video smart package pillar is a mailbox that you would normally see in front of someone's home, where it looks like a brick mailbox, but encased inside is an area where packages can be stored.

You have a normal door that you can open that your mail goes there, but as this rises, it frees up the space so that you can drop the packages directly inside.

This mailbox does require a key.

Prince II created videos to show how it works and took the mailbox to the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show, where innovations often become reality.

He has been working on the world's first video smart mailbox for more than a decade, finally obtaining a patent in May. The patent took eight years to obtain. 

Prince II is hoping it won't take that long to get to production. 

Porch pirates

Porch pirates are people who steal from your porch. Targeting packages that you have worked hard to pay for and have delivered.

Security.org's annual report shows that 58,000,000 packages were pilfered last year. Valued at over $12 billion.

What they're saying:

Prince II explained the convenience of having an anti-theft mailbox, as opposed to a video camera on your doorstep.

"If somebody takes anything from your porch, then they may not go to jail because it's a misdemeanor, but if somebody touches a mailbox, I don’t think you've got to explain to people, they automatically know it's a federal offense, so it's federally protected," said Prince II.

"My main focus was making sure the height requirement and the measurements were correct," said Prince II. "You don't really see a lot of people actually going in people's mailboxes. You see them going on their porches."

What's next:

An innovative idea that Prince II says he needs investors or partners for the next step, in order to get it from a prototype out of his garage, to front yards across North Texas and beyond.