Can a Smart Shipping Label Stop Porch Pirates? | ZFLO & ZakTrak

250,000 packages are swiped from porches in the U.S. every day — and most solutions merely capture thieves after the damage is done. This is where ZakTrak from ZFLO Technologies comes in. I sat down with Founder & CEO Larry Fox to learn more about this smart shipping label that aims to deter porch pirates in real time — not just document their dastardly deeds. In this interview, we learned how ZakTrak works and why I'm ready to add this device on at checkout to help save my packages from being pilfered!

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Larry: Years ago, like almost every American out there, or at least half of them, I experienced package theft. It was one of those things where I knew if I experienced it, other people experienced it. It was a problem that, with my know-how and my habit of always wanting to tinker and engineer things, I set out on a mission with my son to solve this problem for the whole United States.

It actually started out as an idea. We went online and tried to find solutions that were out there. We tried everything. Like most Americans, everybody has security systems or lock boxes on the doorstep, or you go to a locker somewhere else and pick up your package.

What really started ZFLO was that we were looking for a solution that did not put the burden on the consumer.

If you look at retailers, they spend billions of dollars every year protecting products inside a brick-and-mortar store. Those tags you see on a shirt, and when you walk through the doors, those big things that will alarm if you try to walk out with something. They spend a lot of research and energy on that. They do it for their own protection, but they also do it for the consumers because it helps keep prices low and helps keep people honest. It does not treat you like a criminal.

Researching that, and doing a lot of research and getting a lot of information from places like SafeWise, we realized what people want, what works, and what does not. It is not that the other solutions do not work, they are just really inconvenient. That is the big thing about them. Any kind of deterrence for package theft, in my mind, is a thumbs up.

Looking at what retailers are doing, and then talking to retailers, a lot of them feel that once the package is delivered, it is not their problem. But consumers also want the retailers to say, “Hey, it kind of is your problem because I haven’t actually taken it yet.” So you get this back and forth.

Larry: What we did was go back and look at all those EAS systems, again, the systems that protect stuff in brick and mortar stores. They are effective. They prevent up to about 87% of would-be thefts. While there are billions of dollars lost, there could be hundreds of billions lost without those things.

So what we did is take that idea and every component of it and put it into a shipping label. Now it is put onto a box. When it is delivered to your house, that box is its own EAS system. It has a built-in alarm and a geofence around your porch, around your house, and it replicates the idea of theft deterrence.

If a would-be thief walks up and touches the box, it sounds a chirp, an initial alarm like you see in the stores. Based on psychology and studies, about 68% of people are going to drop that box and walk away. They are not going to want it because it is an opportunistic crime. They want to be in and out, but if they think somebody is watching, that changes things.

If somebody is very adamant about taking it and decides to run with it and go outside that predetermined geofence around your doorstep or your house, the alarm goes off full blast. It is a 95-decibel alarm. It can be heard from about 800 to 1,000 feet away.

At that point it will email you, it will text you, it can text your neighbors, and do all sorts of things to bring attention to that would-be thief. Statistically, at that point, about another 85% of the people who decided to steal it will drop it. Hopefully, your package is within 20 to 30 feet of your house because they realize they are not going to get away with it. And here we are.

Rebecca: That is really incredible. I have seen some videos of the ZakTrak in action. It is pretty impressive.

Rebecca: If they continue to run with the package, even though it is screaming and everything, and they throw it in their car of ill-gotten gain and go home, will you still be able to track where your package eventually ends up? Is it like when I lose my iPhone, and I can see where it is?

Larry: Yes, it will still track. To be honest, what we do not want is somebody to see that the package was stolen and is 10 houses down, then go banging on someone’s door saying, “You have my package.”

But it will track.

What we have been working with and testing is tracking to a certain point. Again, if somebody is going to steal it, the likelihood of them dropping it and not dealing with it is usually within about 100 feet of the house. We can track it to that point.

However, we are working on letting the retailer find its final location. The consumer could say, “Hey, I saw my package leave.” Once it leaves a certain area, there is a help button or something similar. The retailer is aware of it. The retailer can contact the authorities, and that helps them figure out where the final destination was.

Rebecca: Our latest report on SafeWise showed that 83% of people who had a package stolen decided to implement some kind of security measure after their package got stolen. What we are trying to do is get people to do things before that happens.

But again, there is only so much you can do as a consumer on your end. I think having this option for retailers to participate covers the whole problem from beginning to end.

Larry: This is an opportunistic crime, which you guys are well aware of and always talk about. If you can deter this type of crime in that first 5 to 10 seconds, the likelihood of someone not following through with it shoots way up.

By bringing attention to what is going on, you change that behavior. To your point before, security systems are great, doorbell cameras are great, but unless you are monitoring them 24/7, it is not a proactive approach. It is, “Hey, I have been recorded.”

I was reading some articles recently about a package theft ring that happened in Colorado. One of the guys they interviewed said, “Yeah, lots of times I wave to the cameras.” They do not care anymore because they know most people are not watching. By the time it takes them to grab the package and run out of the frame, someone may get a motion alert, but it takes a few seconds to check, and they are already gone.

So what do you do? You recorded somebody stealing your package. I have had that feeling before. It is not fun.

Rebecca: Your device is something that is still related to the package itself, which I think is crucial, but it solves all those extra issues. Tell me a little bit about why the Zack Track is not a glitter bomb.

Larry: The glitter bomb. I have seen a lot of videos recently where people use them, and I know some of them are AI-generated, but they show those big over-the-top ones where the whole box blows up with colored powder.

What you said is exactly right: that is considered a booby trap and that is actually against federal law. They are entertaining, and a lot of those videos are staged when you see them, but they do get the point across that it would stop someone.

The problem is that it really throws liability onto the consumer. When you booby-trap something or set up something that could physically harm someone, that is a problem. I have seen videos where people had “innovative” ideas for bombs or exploding packages or very loud noise devices. People trip and fall backwards, they break a leg, and they end up suing the homeowner. You do not want to do that.

Ours is different. It has a visual deterrent. The idea is to stop the theft without harming anyone. If you run off with the package, you just know you are going to be tracked and you are going to bring attention to yourself with that alarm going off.

If someone starts tearing it off and trying to mess with it, the device knows it is being tampered with, and the alarm fully goes off. It lets the consumer know, “Hey, I am being tampered with; someone is trying to steal the box right now on your porch or trying to open your box.”

The entertainment factor is still there in some of the videos we have, where you see people panic, but they are not elaborate, Oscar-level glitter bomb productions.

Rebecca: We have been talking to consumers for years, so we understand from the consumer side what is going on, what they are observing, and their experiences with porch pirates, plus what they do before and after a package gets stolen.

You have the inside track on what this problem looks like to retailers, which is something we have not really been able to shine a light on before. Talking about addressing the problem holistically means defining it that way, too.

Would you share some of the interesting findings you have had, and maybe some of the concerns retailers have expressed about fraud and similar issues?

Larry: When you look at the background of the retailers, and when we first started this idea and were talking to consumers, they liked it. People would say, “Oh yeah, that would be great,” but it kind of just ended there. It was not, “I am going to order one right now.”

So to be proactive, we went to retailers and said, “Hey, we are going to offer this to consumers.” Retailers said, “Hold on, this is interesting.”

As we got into it, we realized a lot of retailers did not even fully realize the complete cost of package theft. If you use an example of a $100 item, if they ship that out and it gets stolen, they are going to replace it. Let’s say they only had a 20% profit margin on that item. To replace it costs them $80.

Then on top of that, most retailers will expedite shipping or add extra shipping costs. Then you have more labor costs just to pack it up and do all the back-end work that they do not always account for.

If the item is higher value, depending on the process, they may file claims or have someone investigate to make sure it was actually stolen. That may take someone an hour, it may take a day, it may take three days.

All of these costs add up. On average, we found it ended up costing the retailer anywhere from $230 to $350 for that $100 package. That adds up quickly.

So when you guys were doing your research and say there is a $15 billion loss to consumers, you at least double that because retailers are out that money too, and then there is even more cost beyond that.

Rebecca: With all the communication that is happening around this device and addresses and where I live being involved, how do you address privacy concerns?

Larry: It is a one-time use device. We can recycle them. We do have a recycling program. If people want to send them back or go to their local store and drop them off, we will get them back and reuse them.

Once it is disarmed, the memory wipes out inside the device. It is completely blank. It is a dummy, dead device. There is nothing to worry about in terms of someone hacking into our data. It does not work that way.

It works on a background network and a newer type of network technology. There is no personal data to be shared. It just basically says, “I am here, this is my location.” Addresses and things like that are not part of what we store. That is not a concern because we do not have that data.

This is not the end-all, be-all solution to package theft. I think it is a very good way to add to the toolbox. The great thing is not everybody can install cameras on their homes. This works at apartment buildings too, which is great.

With some of the new technology we are working on, we are thinking about places where not every apartment has a central package locker in the front office. My niece still has packages delivered right to her doormat at her apartment, and she has had them stolen multiple times. If we can protect something sitting on a doormat, why not?

Rebecca: Thank you so much for talking to us today. I look forward to seeing ZFlow in action. I cannot wait until I can add it to my next delivery, and we will keep people posted in 2026 as this goes on.

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