Craig writes:
On 8/2 a couple of kids stole our Amazon Fresh order right off our front porch. It was pretty clear that they were following the Amazon truck as they are right behind it, park and walk up the street looking for the delivery.
The are pretty bold, they realize at 3:24:34 that they are on camera. They step in to the shadows and the girl returns covered a hoodie and has taken off her shoes to sneak up to grab the goods making sure not to look at the camera. In the end, Amazon was great, they sent me out a new delivery later that afternoon, and the joke was on the thieves because all they got away with were two tubes of toothpaste, a box of baby wipes and a roll aluminum foil.
I have taken to having my deliveries dropped off in the middle of the day rather than the middle of the night, hopefully the theft is less overt then.
Here is the video of the incident from different 3 angles. Perhaps someone will recognize the couple.
You can see the couple first approach at 3:24:34 AM, then the woman returns at 3:24:36 to make off the goods. You can see the timestamp in the bottom right, and we say this because if you don’t fast forward, you will be watching a lot surveillance video of an empty porch.
Please be on the lookout for a young couple with well polished teeth, clean bottoms and a tin-foil hat.
(E-mail readers, you will have to click-through to the web site to see the video.)
Wow. That’s a lot of surveillance cameras for a private residence.
Obviously not enough.
Turn-of-the-century Wallingford homes used to have coal chutes so coal could be delivered to their coal cellars, what we now call basements. Maybe creating package cages on or under our porches will work to discourage these opportunists. Leave the cage open and unlocked on the prearranged delivery day and the delivery person deposits the bin inside and locks the door. I think that damaging a “delivery cage” would be a more serious crime than nicking a container off a porch. As for what to do about why people become criminals, I have no idea . . .
Where did you get the cameras? we have a big problem with theft as well.
(BTW, she returns at 3:25:36, not 3:24:36.)
Last week we saw a young couple break into a car in front of our house.
She climbed in through an open window and set off the alarm. Our neighbor came out which startled them.
She rush out of the car and they ran off.
There is an amazon fresh crate and bag on the corner of 42nd and Latona that showed up Friday morning and has been sitting there since. I thought it was odd that someone would want to throw away this kind of thing but now I wonder if this is the delivery that was stolen?
All kinds of strange things happening these days. I saw a woman stop at a children’s lemonade stand when the kids had stepped away, filled up her water bottle with Lemonade and calmly walked away without leaving any money. When I asked her why she did it she said, “I thought it was free”…….
A cat tried to jump into my bedroom last night, but bounced off the window screen. Strange days, indeed.
So sorry life has become so challenging. Courage, and whatever sympathy is appropriate for the thieves?
Speaking of strange, we had our house broken into today at the corner of 46th & Eastern. If you pass by the area, you will know our house on the NE corner with the half-built wood fence with brick columns. I suppose it’s not that strange to have your house broken into here in Wallingford but, besides the usual items such as laptops, jewelry, loose money, video camera, etc, they walked out in the middle of the day with a 46″ and 32″ tv! It seems they walked out the basement door, which is along 46th and perhaps parked their vehicle across the sidewalk. I checked a bit of loose dirt in the driveway and there were no tire tracks so it appears they didn’t back all the way into the driveway. If anyone saw anything strange, such as a vehicle backed up to this driveway along 46th or someone carrying a 46″ tv to a vehicle parked on 46th, I would truly appreciate if you contacted me. Thanks. [email protected]
So as not to waste anybody’s freakin TIME. Make sure and scroll to 15:43 of the damned video to find two ghostly figures which nobody could ever help the victim identify. Come *on* Wallyhood….let’s edit some video.
A couple of months ago, someone took a big box of toilet paper off of our porch around 2:30 a.m. The noise of two people walking up the stairs woke me up so I went out and checked the front porch and noticed that the box was gone. The next morning the box had returned, opened with nothing taken. There are so many prowlers around our neighborhood, thanks for sharing your video and story.
The girl’s in a dress (?) unusual attire for thieving I would think, maybe good cover for looking innocent. …. the male (?) has very reflective stripes on his “Felony Flier’s” as the cops call tennis shoe’s. …… and it seems the Amazon truck is just down the street making another delivery, there is a blinking light @ upper left of frame (down the street) that could be the Amazon truck at another stop, if so, these are very brazen thieves to be so close behind the delivery truck.
Maybe Amazon needs to install rear facing video equipment to record plate numbers of cars following their trucks, at least for the night runs, and daylight also, it could cut way down on replacing orders costs for them, and get some criminals of the street.
These same type of thieves also follow UPS and FedEx trucks to steal deliveries. Shame on these people.
So three weeks ago I had my 50 # Smoker with 8 whole chickens stolen at 4pm on a Friday while still SMOKIN !!!!! Thieves are pretty brazen these days, best bet is to watch out for each other….
Dana Hannon, please tell me more! You had 8 chickens in a smoker and the WHOLE thing got stolen??? How big is a 50# smoker? I just got back from visiting relatives and they smoked a 10# brisket, some duck and a bunch of ribs…there is no way anyone could walk away with it…it’s really HOT!
Agreeing with 14. Darlene,
Many companies do have rear video systems for backing up, to save children and damage costs. .. Adding a recorder w/ time stamp synchronized with their digital delivery tablets would allow for them to easily check for plate #’s following their truck moments before the missing delivery, even if you don’t have video surveillance on your porch. All delivery companies could save on losses and dollars while catching some criminals at the same time. …. Just an idea worth ????
I live at 39th and Bagley. Last night a package was stolen off of our porch. We were home until 6, back at 7:30. UPS says the package was delivered at 6:20 pm. I suspect that someone was following the truck. If anyone sees two fish-shaped wind socks abandoned anywhere, I’d love to know! They were supposed to be part of a dance performance tomorrow.
I’m so sorry to hear about the recent thefts and break ins! Craig, I am glad Amazon sent out a new order and I hope they comped it. Wayne146 good idea about cameras on delivery vehicles. We should all mention it to Amazon/UPS/FedEx.
Also, another delivery option from Amazon is using an Amazon Locker. If you have a delivery which meet the follow criteria, you can have your items delivered to a safe and secure locker nearby:
1. Is sold or fulfilled by Amazon.com,
2. Has product dimensions smaller than 11.8 x 11.8 x 11.8 inches,
3. Has a shipping weight that is less than 10 lbs, and
4. Doesn’t require special handling.
Here’s a link for more information:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/?nodeId=200689010
Brian, I didn’t see or hear anything. That’s TERRIBLE. What did the police say? I can’t believe that happened in the middle of day. Our street is pretty busy with foot traffic.
I’m glad we have this forum to keep in touch w/our neighbors.
We found two baby items in our side yard, obviously discarded by neighborhood thieves. One is a Phil & Teds bag and the other is a bag with a sort of bed/cushion folded up inside. It also had disposable diapers in the pocket, so clearly a baby item. Anybody missing these things? I’m guessing they were taken from a porch or car.
Update: This evening our package, open and with the wind socks sticking out of it, mysteriously appeared on our porch. Was is misdelivered and opened by another Bagley resident who was baffled by the sight of fish windsocks? Did someone find it in the bushes and kindly deliver it to our front porch? We may never know, but either way, we are grateful to be reunited with the fish windsocks!
Our footage also picked them up (opposite side of street as the OP) – I finally got around to checking our camera recordings. The male came onto our property and checked out our front porch (there were empty boxes for recycle, I guess they caught his eye). They were still in the area at 4.29 AM as they drove back up past our houses
….well I never. I just checked other nights around the same time. I’m looking into the footage further but it looks like the same car is active in the neighborhood around the same time almost every night
Sounds like it’s time for a neighborhood watch. At least, everybody who sees the/a car prowling, get the license and call 911. And those pix on your property! Should be possible for police to follow. If there is no reaction, request a meeting from our neighborhood police contact. Sorry I forget her name.
Terrie Johnston
[email protected]
Her work really came through in east Wallingford regarding a recent crime situation. It really helped us to keep a detailed log of what was seen and heard, and funnel that through one community member who represented the group and who then forwarded info to Terrie.
On my block, people who aren’t home during the day have their packages delivered to homes where people are home. (That wouldn’t apply to mid-night deliveries though.)
Where did you get your video surveillance system?
Also, following a trip to the home show I had a conversation with the PIO (public information officer) for the police department – she told me that SPD doesn’t recommend active alarm systems (ADT, formally Brinks (ADT bought Brinks) and the like) as most of the calls are false – SPD apparently thus doesn’t consider them emergencies. Most burglars are in and out in 5 minutes max – long before the LEOs show up anyway. Perhaps a video system would be useful – might get a picture of the ‘perp’.
And, come to think of it, does anyone have an update on this theft…or on the pattern of thefts in the area in general?
Recommendations for video systems?
Hi John,
We just bought something like this:
http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11762124&search=q+see+cameras&Mo=8&cm_re=1_en-_-Top_Left_Nav-_-Top_search&lang=en-US&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&Sp=S&N=5000043&whse=BC&Dx=mode+matchallpartial&Ntk=Text_Search&Dr=P_CatalogName:BC&Ne=4000000&D=q+see+cameras&Ntt=q+see+cameras&No=6&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Nty=1&topnav=&s=1
The guy who installed our alarm system recommended Costco’s Q See brand video surveillance cameras. They aren’t sold in the stores, but you can buy them on-line and Costco will ship to your house free of charge. Also, if you need anyone to install the system, I have an excellent referral for you.
Another tip about alarm systems: with some systems, you can have the alarm message sent to your smartphone, email, iPad, etc. allowing you (or your neighbors) to determine whether or not it is a real burglary. If it is, you (or your neighbors) can call the police. A burglary in process definitely has priority over an automated alarm. Also, an alarm connected to your land line isn’t very effective. The burglar just needs to cut your phone lines and then your alarm system disconnected. If you choose an alarm system, make sure it’s cell based.
Hope this helps…
To reduce theft for UPS deliveries – Sign up for “My Choice” on UPS’s site. It is a free service that will let you specific “always deliver my packages to my back porch” or some similar delivery instruction.
For Amazon Fresh, you can also make similar instructions on the order details page. I don’t know if they will go to your back porch, but you can always type in something like “to the right of the door, out of sight of the street.” Best bet is always “attended delivery.”
I wonder if Amazon Fresh and the local police are willing to work with each other to catch the perps in the act.
@Kris –
Hi Kris – who do you refer for security camera installation?
Thanks!
Hi Jen!
Derrick Mito with MES Data Communication installed our alarm system and our cameras. He did an excellent job. He is one of the most positive and upbeat people I know. His prices are affordable and he is extremely professional and courteous. He has a can-do attitude and will work with you to make sure everything is installed to your specifications. His contact info:
[email protected]
206.947.0654 (voice and text)
Best wishes!
Kris – Thank you very much! Will give him a call…
Did you get your camera system at Costco, similar to the link above? We only need a couple outdoor cameras (not 6) so looking at options.
My deliveries never came today. Or maybe got stolen too. The funny thing was that my old totes were still by the front porch. Too bad I didn’t have surveillance. Will definitely purchase a Nest Outdoor Cam this time. Tsk!