There have been a few sitings recently of package thieves around the neighborhood. Kimberly writes:
I saw some HIGHLY SUSPICIOUS behavior from this man today. White male, brown hair, tall and skinny, probably in his 20s, wearing jeans and brown boots with a black hoodie and a navy jacket over the hoodie. He was carrying a large, dark green sack that had items in it.
I saw him coming down from a porch on N. 38th Street, then followed him about 10 blocks. He was stopping at every corner, looking up and down the street and then walking partway down a block if he could hear a truck running. He was cagey and nervous acting, and went into Durn Good when I tried to snap his picture. Followed him along 38th from Bagley to Wallingford, up to 40th and then along 40th to Sunnyside. He headed north on Sunnyside.
A little while later I saw a Fedex driver and told him what I had seen. The driver asked, “Green sack?” And when I said yes, he told me that he had seen that guy around. He is going to try to get a better picture. I called the police non-emergency line and couldn’t get through. I tweeted a picture and description to SPD. Would love ideas for what else to do.
Then, Molly posted to the Wallingford / Fremont Community page on Facebook:
If you live on the 4000 block of Bagley Ave N. and you are missing a package today it is possible but not conclusive this might be what happened. I was driving and saw a woman come from one of the houses , not sure which one, carrying a package. She began taking off packaging and dumped it in two different garbage bins within two blocks. She was wearing a leopard print coat has dyed blond hair with dark roots, sturdy build. she kept changing direction and finally hid behind something.
The item she unpackaged was something in a white box with pink and black on it. She was also carrying kids books that looked like maybe coloring books.
If this is a picture of you and there is a perfectly reasonable explanation, then just know you have a neighbor that cares.
Now, I know there’s bound to be some very reasonable “hey, aren’t you condemning people without a trial here”, but I think Molly perfectly captures the right response: we’re open to new information to understand the situation, but we can’t have that conversation unless we share what we know.
Elsewhere, folks are fighting back in creative ways. In Las Vegas, for example, a homeowner left a decoy package filled with dog poop on his doorstep, then enjoyed the resulting security camera footage of the theft. A whole community in Utah has taken up a similar tactic, with hundreds of people pledging to place fake packages filled with oddments and trash on their porch to, at a minimum, waste the thieves time.
Wallyhood would like to go on record as wholeheartedly encouraging this behavior.
(Thanks Helen, Glen and Kimberly for the tips)
We are installing Nest / DropCams at our home, and we are encouraging everyone else on Burke to do the same. Several neighbors have discussed collectively putting up signs, too, indicating that our entire block is under video surveillance. Sad to come to this state of affairs, but absent any help from SPD, I don’t see any other alternatives other than encouraging constant vigilance.
Note, I would caution neighbors, too, from following a suspected thief too closely or putting yourself in harms way just to get a picture. After all, this is just “stuff” and not worth bodily harm. Too often, a petty criminal will actually do something irrational, if confronted or cornered. Not worth it, IMHO, for that stolen FedEx package.
Check out the Armcrest Pro HD on Amazon. Great reviews. On my wishlist!
Don’t post to here hours later. Call the police!!!
As in 911. I talked to the police about this. They say not to call the non emergency line for package theft. If they have an officer nearby they can come over and check the person out.
What I don’t understand is why people keep getting packages delivered to their home. If it is a UPS delivery you can have them deliver it to the UPS store on 45th near Sunnyside. If it is a FedEx delivery you can have it delivered to the FedEx store on 45th just east of I-5. We’ve done that recently with two packages. It was quite easy to just walk in and pick them up after we got an email that they had been delivered. You can also drop off packages there that you are returning (like an hP printer that was DOA – raspberry to Amazon and hP).
I think I saw this same guy a few weeks ago – he was on a bike, got off of it and walked all way around our neighbor’s house before taking off. It was in broad daylight around 9am and two of us were standing just outside of the house – it was so brazen that we both assumed the guy was a family friend stopping by. Our neighbor came out as the guy took off (empty handed, luckily!) down the street because she saw him on the front porch. This all to say that don’t think that having packages left in the back of your house instead of the front porch will help – this dude definitely looked in back, too.
I have a PO Box at the Wallingford Post Office and this works just great for mail and boxes. They put a key in your PO Box to open a lock box for your packages. Larger ones that won’t fit are kept in back. I learned from a now retired post office worker that video cams are installed in all post offices, all. So your mail and packages will be safe. Mail theft is rampant so I hand carry outgoing mail to blue mail boxes and have maintained a pobox for 30 years. Worth the money for sure.
Also have Fed-X or UPS leave packages at your workplace.
I laughed out loud at the poop-bomb in a decoy package trick, but there are two reasons I’m not going to try it.
One: I’m trying to be mindful of people who piss me off, acknowledge that everyone is struggling with their own real or perceived battles in life, and come up with solutions instead of reacting in a petty or vindictive way. Admittedly, this isn’t really working out for me so far and I still find myself laughing maniacally at the idea of a poop-covered crook, but I haven’t given up on myself yet.
Two: The honest reason is that I’m leery of punking a criminal who knows where I live.
If you’re going to take a picture, don’t telegraph it to the criminal. You want to get nonchalantly close enough to get a good shot with decent resolution. I’ve had people come to my door in the middle of the day when they’re not expecting anyone to be around. That way the can case you. I’ll open the door, with my camera ready, snap their photo, and offer some friendly advice that while they may be just “selling magazines,” if any of my friends and neighbors get robbed, guess whose photo the cops are getting?
Also, try to get a good shot of his car and license plate. follow at a distance if your nervous about that. And if you can, get video without them knowing about it stealing the packages. Even then, the cops might not do anything about it, but at least you have proof if it comes to that.
Also, thumbs up (again) on the PO Box. I love my Wally post office
Like AlChasesHisTrainOfThought, I would be worried about the dog poop recipient knowing where I live and possibly responding in an uglier way.
Also Amazon “Lockers” are pretty convenient. There’s one at the 7Eleven at 40th and Stone.
– r
So what if you have positive ID and holding the person with proof, the perps know they it will take hours before any police show up (I do not blame the police for being overworked with other more important crimes). And if they do, its a catch and return system. A very easy way of the perps to make money!
The Amazon lockers are great, but they are always full when I try to use them, especially this time of year. As for shipping things to work…. the mail room was so overwhelmed by people doing this that we are no longer allowed.
On either Thursday or Friday afternoon of last week I saw that woman in the second post above in the 4500 block of Sunnyside walking towards 45th. She was carrying a rather large box – it looked like a printer or some type of small appliance – the box had colored graphics on the sides. It looked to me like something that had been dropped shipped from the manufacturer. I could see that it was sealed with tape at the top. It must of been heavy as she kept shifting it in her arms.
It is an indisputable fact that packages are being stolen from porches in our neighborhood. It happened to us and it had come via the US postal service so is no doubt a federal crime to steal mail. For one thing, deliverers could try to conceal the package better such as putting it to the side rather than right in front of the door where people can see it from the sidewalk. As far as contacting SPD for non-emergency crimes I found it is futile. Stayed an hour on hold and gave up and hung up. They need a Web based or email based way of reporting non-emergency crimes, or what Comcast does where their system has you enter your phone number and they call you back rather than waiting endlessly on hold.
Call 911. Do not call the non-emergent line. I have never been able to get through. The operators have never discouraged me from calling whether it be a suspicious person or drunk driving. For the truly non-emergent issues Seattle has a great app called “Find-it, Fix-it.” Allows you to report and submit photos of a variety of issues.