Problems with "porch thieves?" This 1980 Decorah HS graduate can help!

The Winneshiek County Sheriff's Office says thieves have been taking delivery packages from front doorsteps around the county.

1980 Decorah High School graduate Jody Pettit knows how that feels.  Six years ago she was in this area, visiting relatives, and received a family treasure--a small teacup that used to belong to her grandfather.  She headed back to her home in Portland, Oregon and her family sent her a package that included the teacup.  She never got the package.

"It really bothered me," Jody tells decorahnews.com.  That's why she worked all the way through the summer of 2014 to launch a company, Landport, which manufactures containers big enough to handle delivery packages, with an automatic lock that can only be unlocked when someone has the right code.

Landport boxes are tamper-proof, weather-resistant and made in the US.  Delivery drivers are used to entering access codes for other deliveries, so the system works well for people who are tired of having packages taken from their doorsteps.

Running a business such as Landport is quite a change for Pettit, who calls it "the non sequitur of my life."  She left Decorah, eventually went to medical school on the East Coast and ended up in Portland for her residency in internal medicine.  She still practices medicine--although now her schedule is four afternoons a week for that, with Landport taking up the rest of her time.

There's a saying, "Mighty oaks from little acorns grow."  In Pettit's case, the saying might be, "A big business from a little teacup grows."

For more about Landport, visit www.thelandport.com

The Landport boxes solve the problem of boxes left on the porch or doorsteps

The tea cup that started it all