RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — ‘Tis the season for porch pirates stealing more and more packages from homes but it seems these thieves are getting more creative in the ways they’re doing so.
One Richmond woman said the person who stole a package from her porch looked a little different than what she would have imagined.
Carey Wodehouse captured the whole incident on her doorbell camera, which shows the moment a man crept onto her porch and stole her package in broad daylight.
Wodehouse was on vacation at the time of the incident. When she returned to her home in the Fan, however, she found her package missing and immediately checked the footage.
“I went and looked through [the video] and sure enough, it was there and then it wasn’t,” Wodehouse said.
She first noticed the man in the video, pacing back and forth outside her home on the sidewalk, wearing a bright green vest. Because of this, she said she didn’t think he could be a suspect at first. She thought he was a construction worker or maybe even a contractor for the city because of his outfit.
“I was like, he must just be on official business. It looked like a city jacket, or someone doing [work]. We have a lot of people who come around for parking, and [who work] on the water lines and stuff like that,” Wodehouse said.
But when the thief swiped the $300 package from her doorstep, she knew she had to warn others.
“I wanted people to be aware that, you know, it may not look suspicious if someone has the vest on but just to keep an eye out that people are kind of going to the next level with stuff like this,” Wodehouse said.
A spokesperson with the Richmond Police Department did not confirm this unusual costuming was part of a new trend among porch pirates but did send over some tips for people to avoid falling victim to these criminals.
Police said using package lockers or having packages delivered to other locations are some ways to protect yourself.
Wodehouse was able to get a refund for the items that were stolen through her credit card company but still spoke out so no one else would have to go through what she did.
“Knowing now that this is like a new tactic and it’s something people are doing, it’s just going to make us all a little bit more aware and everywhere safer,” Wodehouse said.
Richmond Police added that package thefts are actually down so far this year in the city. Only 400 porch thefts have been reported through November, compared to over 440 reported thefts through November last year.
