#10 - The Long Beach Pirate
California woman Shirah Booker watched from inside her house as a porch pirate brazenly walked onto
her front stoop and began rummaging through her mail, on April the 18th of 2019. The woman’s
home surveillance camera captured the moment of retribution that subsequently occurred when she
confronted the thief face-to-face. A brief scuffle ensued as Booker snatched a parcel that the pirate
had taken from her mailbox. She then warned the thief not to return to her house ever again,
and the pirate promptly scurried off the property and fled the scene. Booker initially remained on
her front lawn and vigilantly watched to make sure the thief didn’t attempt to steal any packages
from her neighbors’ houses. The homeowner later uploaded the footage of her triumphant
stand against the pirate to her Facebook page with the caption, “You may wanna’ think twice
about stealing from my house”. #9 - The Goose Creek Pirate
In November of 2020, a resident of The Oaks subdivision in Goose Creek, South Carolina,
posted a picture of a man wearing a green North Face shirt to a neighborhood Facebook group,
claiming that he’d stolen packages from at least 2 porches in the area. The poster warned other
residents to be wary of the possibility of more porch pirate theft attempts,
and also indicated that the authorities had been notified of the situation. The very next day,
the man pictured in the Facebook post walked into a courtroom wearing the same green North
Face shirt that he’d worn while committing the thefts. He was quickly identified by the police,
who placed him under arrest. It wasn’t immediately reported what charges the suspect faced, nor was
his identity made public by the authorities. #8 - The Portland Pirate
After becoming the victim of a porch pirate theft at his home in South Portland, Oregon,
Matt Coats devised a plan, in December of 2019, to deter thieves from stealing his property again. As
was detailed in an article written for the local news outlet KGW-TV, Coats created a bait package,
inside of which he put animal droppings that he’d retrieved from his dog, Marlo. Only three days
after he’d placed the decoy parcel in front of his house, a porch pirate was captured by his doorbell
security camera. In the footage, the thief was first shown taking a package from a neighbor’s
house and swiping a holiday light projector from their front lawn. He then made his way to Coats’
porch and snatched the bait package before stealing a reported $120 worth of clothes from
another neighbor. Although the surveillance camera didn’t capture the thief opening the box Coats had
filled with dog excrement, one of the latter’s friends sent him a text message a short time
later. It informed the homeowner that his decoy package had been discarded on the side of the road
after it was opened. Coats’ surveillance video went viral on social media, and Oregon City police
indicated that they were using the footage as part of their ongoing investigation into a number
of porch pirate incidents in the area. #7 - Tanya Moore
Shortly before 12 pm, on October the 9th of 2020, an employee of the California
Department of Forestry and Fire Protection was alerted by his home security system
that someone was approaching his Shasta Lake residence. As was captured by the doorbell camera,
a woman, who was barefoot and carrying what appeared to be a pillowcase,
walked up to the house and proceeded to grab the Amazon packages that had been delivered to
the front door. She then calmly returned to her car, with the stolen items inside her pillowcase,
and left the scene. The firefighter would later tell investigators that he’d watched the theft
take place while he was at work, and that the swiped packages were worth roughly $200 in total.
The Shasta County Sheriff’s Office reportedly received dozens of tips about the possible
identity of the female suspect. She was eventually identified as Sacramento resident Tanya Moore,
aged 36. Upon being interviewed by investigators, Moore confessed to stealing the packages,
which were reportedly still in her possession at the time of her arrest.
#6 - The St. Paul Pirate Hilary Smith, a resident of St. Paul, Minnesota,
was notified that a package had been delivered to her house, at around midday on December the
11th of 2019. When she got home from work in the afternoon, the package was nowhere to be found.
There was, however, a piece of paper that had been folded up and left on the front step for
Smith to find. As she discovered, upon unfolding the slip, an individual had stolen the package
from her porch. In the note the thief glibly thanked her for leaving the parcel unattended
and signed the taunting message as “the new owner of your package”. Smith subsequently notified the
St. Paul Police Department, who posted an image of the note to their official Facebook page,
calling the incident “disturbing”. They also offered several tips to members of the public
who were concerned about being victimized by porch pirates. One of the security measures
suggested by the authorities was that residents should require a signature for the delivery of
any valuable items. #5 - Carissa Shaw
On August the 13th of 2017, a security camera from a house in South Tulsa, Oklahoma, captured a woman
pull up in front of the property and casually walk up to the porch, where she then stole a
package that had previously been delivered. The homeowner relayed the footage to local police, who
reportedly stated that the video was of remarkably good quality considering it was taken from
a doorbell surveillance camera. The Tulsa Police Department subsequently publicized the footage,
enlisting the help of other nearby residents in their effort to identify the female suspect.
Shortly after the video’s release, the Tulsa Crime Stoppers began receiving numerous tips about the
individual shown in the clip, and it wasn’t long before the authorities identified Carissa
Shaw as the thief. The 37-year-old denied having stolen anything, and reportedly listed the package
distribution center for Macy's in Owasso as her work address. Despite her claims of innocence,
Shaw was ultimately arrested and charged with one count of larceny. It was reported that she’d been
arrested multiple times during the previous 4 years in connection to drug possession and
receiving stolen property. #4 - The Huntersville Pirate
On the morning of April the 22nd of 2021, a FedEx delivery truck stopped in front of a house in
a suburban neighborhood in Huntersville, North Carolina. As was captured by the home’s security
cameras, the delivery man retrieved a package from inside the truck and started making his way
towards the front door, when a woman in a gray sedan pulled into the driveway and greeted him.
She reportedly claimed to be the owner of the house where the package was supposed to be
delivered, so the courier handed her the box, then returned to his truck and drove away. The woman
appeared as if she was tending to something in the driver’s seat of her car until the delivery man
was gone, at which point she climbed back into the vehicle and left the scene. It would later emerge
that the woman who’d taken the package didn’t actually live at that address, but had followed
the FedEx truck to the location of the delivery. The real homeowner alerted the police to the
theft upon watching the interaction unfold on her security camera later that day. FedEx agreed to
compensate the victim for the cost of the stolen item, which was reported as being a new laptop.
As of the latest updates on the case, Huntersville police had launched an investigation into the
identity of the brazen thief who was suspected to have victimized other residents as well.
#3 - Maurice Jerome Simmons
South Carolina man Maurice Jerome Simmons was identified by the North Charleston Police
Department as the perpetrator of a porch pirate theft, on January the 12th of 2022.
Officers of the department’s Intelligence Policing Unit were able to track down
the suspect in his car, at which point they attempted to initiate a traffic stop. Simmons,
however, sped away from the scene, prompting the police to give chase. Following a brief pursuit,
Simmons reportedly crashed into another vehicle on the roadway, causing his car to flip over at an
intersection near Charleston Heights. The officers then converged upon the overturned vehicle
and took the suspect into custody. The packages that had been declared stolen were located in the
trunk of Simmons’ car, and it was reported that they were subsequently returned to their owners.
For his various infractions, Simmons was charged with four counts of larceny, failure to stop for
blue lights, and driving under suspension. #2 - Tara Westford and Ronnie Bartholomew
In an effort to crack down on porch pirate thefts, the Sacramento Police Department
enacted a package bait program that entailed placing decoy parcels implanted with tracking
devices in front of people’s houses. The sting operation yielded immediate results as,
on the morning of January the 1st of 2017, the authorities were notified that a bait package
had been swiped from a home in the 2300 block of Haldis Way. They tracked the package to a vehicle
in the drive-thru line at a local McDonald’s restaurant, and arrested the car’s two occupants,
named as West Sacramento residents Tara Westford and Ronnie Bartholomew. Officers searched the
vehicle and found the bait package, as well as narcotics, and the 2 thieves were consequently
charged with petty theft, possession of stolen property, and drug possession.
#1 - Gabriel Poventud
On December the 12th of 2019, Arizona man Jeremiah Lopez noticed a suspicious individual looking into
his Phoenix residence from behind the wall that separated his backyard from a residential street
on the other side. The concerned homeowner went out to confront the man, who swiftly rode off down
the road on his bicycle. As Lopez later told the authorities, the suspect came back moments later,
riding up to the front yard and spraying mace directly in the resident’s face. The bicyclist
then fled the scene for a second time, and Lopez, with one hand covering his burning eye,
got into his pickup truck to pursue his assailant. Lopez quickly caught up to the
suspect and attempted to pass in front of him, but the bicyclist took a sharp turn and collided with
the pickup’s front bumper. The bike was crushed beneath the truck, while its rider bounced off
the hood and landed on the pavement. He then got up and started striking Lopez’s truck with
his bag repeatedly. The police arrived at the scene shortly thereafter and took the cyclist,
named as 30-year-old Gabriel Poventud, into custody. In the wake of the arrest, a nearby
resident recognized Poventud’s face in the booking photo made public by the police. The suspect had
been captured on a security camera stealing a package off of their doorstep the day before his
run-in with Lopez, and he was consequently charged in connection to both incidents.
Thanks for watching! Would you rather a stranger opened all your mail but never
stole anything or listened in on all your phone calls? Let us know in the comments section below!