The iPhone 16 series is now available, and customers can purchase them in stores. However, there are people who opt for direct delivery to their homes instead of visiting a retailer or carrier. That said, several AT&T subscribers have been reporting cases of iPhones stolen at their front doors.

The perpetrators of the thefts are the so-called “porch pirates.” These criminals who specialize in “monitoring” deliveries at doorsteps are nothing new. However, there have been an alarming number of reports from AT&T clients about stolen iPhones. To make matters worse, some clues point to it all being an inside job.

AT&T customers report stolen iPhone 16 devices at their doorsteps

AT&T is a carrier that simplifies the “job” of porch pirates. If the buyer is not at home, the company’s policy of not requiring signatures for device delivery leaves the package on their porches or doors, vulnerable to potentially malicious individuals. Recently, multiple door/doorbell camera recordings have surfaced, revealing how the criminals act.

To begin with, porch pirates who target AT&T iPhone 16 units are highly efficient, perhaps even overly so. The process of stealing and getting away by car can take them as little as 10 seconds after the package is “delivered” to the door. It’s almost as if they know in advance that the device is going to arrive at that exact address, right? Well, it seems that’s exactly what’s happening.

Criminals would have help from AT&T employees

Some of the caught criminals have been found to have a list of iPhone tracking numbers from AT&T. The tracking number allows them to know where and when a package in question will arrive. This gives criminals an advantage when planning a robbery. AT&T could resolve the problem by requiring a signature as proof of delivery of the device. However, the carrier says that they do not require a signature to facilitate or expedite the receiving process. FedEx shippers would even have to pay an additional $7.15 per package to require a signature. Other carriers, like Verizon or T-Mobile, do require a mandatory signature to deliver packages.

One of the cases of stolen AT&T iPhones occurred in Houston, Texas. A couple of teenagers had flown from Detroit expressly to commit the crime. The teens carried a list of AT&T package tracking numbers. “We have no evidence of any breach of our systems, and this was not a hack,” said a carrier spokesperson. Therefore, everything points to an AT&T employee collaborating with porch pirates to facilitate the theft of iPhones.

Carrier must resolve the situation as soon as possible

AT&T should do everything in its power to prevent the escalating problem. A simple change in its policies, such as requiring a signature for package delivery, can help resolve the situation. AT&T must also trace where the leak of tracking numbers comes from.

The soundtrack to the spider-bot-crawling 1997 Ghost in the Shell game adaptation is coming to the West for the first time. Titled Ghost in the Shell: Megatech Body (as an ode to the Fuchikoma mech you pilot in the game), the soundtrack was produced by Takkyu Ishino. It’s available to pre-order on iam8bit ahead of its 2025 release.

The PS1 game adaptation had late-90s gamers piloting a spider-like mech (first appearing in the 1991 manga), blasting enemies to smithereens with twin machine guns and guided missiles. Masamune Shirow, the original manga’s author, wrote and illustrated its story and art design.

But as 90s shooters often figured out, firing guns nonstop for hours on end is much better with a badass techno soundtrack pumping in the background like an energy drink for your ears. In addition to Ishino, it includes “warehouse-shaking bangers” from Mijk Van Dijk, The Advent, Joey Beltram and Brother from Another Planet (among others).

The soundtrack album first arrived in Japan alongside the game in 1997 in a single-disc version and an expanded two-disc limited edition. In an apparent nod to the original, the 2025 soundtrack for the West will be available on CD (23 tracks), a double LP (11 tracks) and a 12-inch picture disc ( a “carefully curated” six tracks).

You can now pre-order the three Ghost in the Shell: Megatech Body variants on iam8bit. The CD (packaged in a “stunning 3D lenticular case”) costs $43, the vinyl version is $55 and the picture disc (which comes on an illustrated two-sided disc that pays homage to the original release) costs $50. The soundtrack is expected to arrive in Q2 2025.

As an award-winning scientist, Peter Dodge had made hundreds of flights into the eyes of hurricanes — almost 400. On Tuesday, a crew on a reconnaissance flight into Hurricane Milton helped him make one more, dropping his ashes into the storm as a lasting tribute to the longtime National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration radar specialist and researcher.

“It’s very touching,” Dodge’s sister, Shelley Dodge, said in an interview Thursday with The Associated Press. “We knew it was a goal of NOAA to make it happen.”

The ashes were released into the eye of the hurricane Tuesday night, less than 24 hours before Milton made landfall in Siesta Key near Sarasota, Florida. An in-flight observations log, which charts information such as position and wind speed, ended with a reference to Dodge’s 387th — and final — flight.

“He’s loved that aspect of his job,” Shelley Dodge said. “It’s bittersweet. On one hand, a hurricane’s coming and you don’t want that for people. But on the other hand, I really wanted this to happen.”

Dodge died in March 2023 at age 72 of complications from a fall and a stroke, his sister said.

The Miami resident spent 44 years in federal service. Among his awards were several for technology used to study Hurricane Katrina’s destructive winds in 2005.

He also was part of the crew aboard a reconnaissance flight into Hurricane Hugo in 1989 that experienced severe turbulence and saw one of its four engines catch fire.

“They almost didn’t get out of the eye,” Shelley Dodge said.

Items inside the plane were torn loose and tossed about the cabin. After dumping excess fuel and some heavy instruments to enable the flight to climb further, an inspection found no major damage to the plane and it continued on. The plane eventually exited the storm with no injuries to crew members, according to NOAA.

A degenerative eye disorder eventually prevented Dodge from going on further reconnaissance flights.

Shelley Dodge said NOAA had kept her informed on when her brother’s final mission would occur and she relayed the information to relatives.

“There were various times where they thought all the pieces were going to fall in place but it had to be the right combination, the research flight. All of that had to come together,” she said. “It finally did on the 8th. I didn’t know for sure until they sent me the official printout that showed exactly where it happened in the eye.”

Dodge had advanced expertise in radar technology with a keen interest in tropical cyclones, according to a March 2023 newsletter by NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory announcing his death.

The newsletter said colleagues were “saddened by the sudden and tragic loss of one of its longtime meteorologists,” who died peacefully on March 3. 

He collaborated with the National Hurricane Center and Aircraft Operations Center on airborne and land-based radar research. During hurricane aircraft missions, he served as the onboard radar scientist and conducted radar analyses. Later, he became an expert in radar data processing, the newsletter said. He received a Department of Commerce Bronze Medal, two NOAA Administrator Awards and the Army Corp of Engineers Patriotic Civilian Service Award.

Dodge’s ashes were contained in a package. Among the symbols draped on it was the flag of Nepal, where he spent time as a Peace Corps volunteer teaching math and science to high school students before becoming a meteorologist.

Hurricane specialist Michael Lowry shared a photo on social media of the NOAA log noting the ashes were dropped calling it a “beautiful tribute.”

An avid gardener, Dodge also had a fondness for bamboo and participated in the Japanese martial art Aikido, attending a session the weekend before he died.

“He just had an intellectual curiosity that was undaunted, even after he lost his sight,” Shelley Dodge said.