Police search for porch pirate after video shows package stolen from inside Brookline, Massachusetts, home
By Shaun Chaiyabhat
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BROOKLINE, Massachusetts (WCVB) — Police in Brookline are investigating after home surveillance video caught a man picking up a package that did not belong to him after it was just delivered to the home by a FedEx delivery driver on Tuesday.
What seemed like a normal FedEx delivery turned into an incident of suspected porch pirating just 40 minutes later, when a Brookline homeowner said a man came up to his home, opened the door, then picked up a package intended for the homeowner, before walking away.
“It’s a little scary,” the homeowner said. “It’d be one thing if he took it from my porch, but he actually came into my house. That, more than anything, is just scary.”
The homeowner said someone sent a $1,200 iPhone as a gift, which he had no idea was missing until the sender asked if it arrived.
He then watched his Ring camera video and saw the stranger going into his home.
“The craziest part is he looked right into my ring camera,” the homeowner said.
Brookline Police Deputy Superintendent Paul Campbell was pretty surprised by the video as well.
“It was pretty bold to see somebody actually go into a vestibule of a person’s home in broad daylight,” Campbell said.
The Brookline Police Department said porch pirates are becoming more common, with iPhones being a hot item.
Police also said thieves do not always work alone and they are thankful that in this instance, the video was clear.
“The thief probably was aware that there was a package that had been delivered,” Campbell said. “It looked like he was in there targeting a specific package. There is some reason to believe that sometimes these thieves are following FedEx trucks or other delivery trucks, and they’re actually aware of tracking numbers of iPhone that have been ordered.”
In this case, it’s too soon to tell, but police are hoping someone recognizes the man and gives them a call.
Meanwhile, the homeowner said he was unsure of what to do differently in order to prevent such an incident from happening again.
Police said the best thing people can do to help avoid porch pirates is to track their package, get a signature request and if possible, have someone at home to pick the package up.
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