Contact 6 offers holiday shipping tips

MILWAUKEE -- FOX6's Contact 6 is issuing an alert for anyone shipping holiday gifts. Those expensive packages could mysteriously walk away, if you're not careful! Contact 6 has some tips to ensure your holiday gifts arrive in good hands, and on time.

Patti Winter says she ships about 100 packages a day from just one of her 25 UPS stores across southeastern Wisconsin. She says she sees a lot of last second shippers, hoping their package arrives in time for Christmas. "You don't really want to wait until the last week. You want to get them out as soon as possible because, as probably every body knows, it's going to cost you a little bit more to get your packages there in a hurry," Winter said.

However, a bigger concern than making it under the tree on time, is getting those packages to their destinations at all! Officer Brad Caddock says you shouldn't be shipping packages unless you know someone is there to receive them. "Obviously, it doesn't take anything once the package is there for someone to walk up and grab it, and they can be off really quickly with that package. People get complacent where they just have the package shipped to their house and they don't think about it.  It's a time of giving. They don't think people would be taking things from their house," Officer Caddock said.

Now, UPS has "My Choice," which is an online method of re-routing your package to another location if you don't think someone will be home when it arrives. It will also send you a text message the day before your package arrives, so you're ready for it. Of course, if your boss doesn't mind, you could also have packages delivered to your desk at work. "If you have the opportunity to send something to somebody at work, that wouldn't be a bad idea to do that," Winter said.

For more information on "My Choice," visit the UPS website. Also - UPS will not ship on Christmas Day or the day after Christmas.