'Porch Pirates' Caught On Newly Installed Home Surveillance Camera
DENVER (CBS4) - Some refer to them as "porch pirates" -- thieves who steal packages delivered to homes when the owners are not there.
It's a common crime around the holidays, but for a couple of Denver homeowners, thieves swiped their items on a sunny April afternoon and it was all caught on camera.
"I just installed (the camera) on Saturday," homeowner Guthrie, who asked CBS4 to not reveal his last name, told Kelly Werthmann, "so it was good timing."
Guthrie's high quality home security camera clearly captured the moment when a silver Suburu Tribeca SUV pulled up in front of his home Monday afternoon and two men got out from the back seats. One man went a couple doors down, the other walked up to Guthrie's front door. That's when Guthrie got a "motion detection" alert sent to his phone while he was at work.
"I saw this all happen on my phone," he said. "He came up and grabbed our packages, another guy ran over to our neighbor's house and grabbed their packages, and then ran back in the car and took off."
Since Guthrie was at work he called his wife, Jane, right away and she immediately called police.
"I was angry and frustrated," Jane said. "Then I immediately posted a screen shot of the car onto Nextdoor.com and within moments had neighbors responding that they had seen that car in another place in the neighborhood."
"Porch piracy" is unfortunately a common problem nationwide, typically around the holidays when people may be expecting several deliveries. Jane said they had items stolen from their front porch a few years ago, but was hopeful security cameras would deter criminals.
"The police actually mentioned to us they've done a few operations where they put tracking devices into different packages," Jane said. "We've offered ourselves up as guinea pigs if that would be helpful, so now these guys stealing packages never know if there's a GPS in one of them."
The high-quality images captured on Guthrie and Jane's security camera are the only clues detectives have right now. The couple hopes it will be enough to track down the thieves.
"It's not as bad as getting your home broken into, but you kind of feel a little violated because they took your stuff," Guthrie said.
Anyone with information that may help investigators solve this crime is asked to the Denver Police Department or CrimeStoppers at (720)913-STOP.
Kelly Werthmann joined the CBS4 team in 2012 as the morning reporter, covering national stories like the Aurora Theater Shooting and devastating Colorado wildfires. She now reports for CBS4 News at 10 and is always open to story ideas. Connect with her on Facebook or Twitter @KellyCBS4.
