Imagine eagerly waiting for a parcel to be dropped at your doorstep, only for someone else to pick it up without your knowledge. Worse still, this behavior becomes a regular occurrence, not just on your porch but in the general neighborhood. Several reports filed with the police went unanswered, and the thieves continued to call the roost.
What would be the best line of action when such behaviors continue to manifest while the authorities rest on their laurels? At times, rotten societal behaviors may force someone's hands into taking unforeseen measures to protect their property, just like we'll find out in this story.
Perennial Porch Pirates
Reportedly, nearly one-third of package deliveries from the U.S. never get to their final destination, as this story's protagonist would tell you. To him, dishonest couriers and sloppy shippers are blameless in this situation. Apparently, most parcels go missing at the unsuspecting intended recipients' doorsteps and not in transit.
Porch parcel thieves, dubbed "mailbox pirates," swoop in when homeowners are unaware of their deliveries, sometimes worth tens of thousands of dollars. This Navy SEAL had had enough of such occurrences, and being a victim while he felt he could do something about it. He thought of crafting an ideal plan to address the matter.
Always a Loser
This officer kept missing his shipments at his doorstep since the porch thief was always ahead of him, which incessantly irritated him. It looked like the mugger had perfected a plan to hide around to wait on his deliveries. Whenever the courier service dropped a parcel on Arthur's porch, he would not get it.
The robber had become a master poacher, akin to someone who had attended classes and perfected the practice. So, this intrepid homeowner thought of devising a plan to trap and teach the burglar a lifetime lesson; the best way he knew how as a uniformed and well-trained law officer.
Beat Them at Their Game
Arthur Russell, like most of his long-serving colleagues in the forces, decided to follow the regulations in whatever plan he crafted to the letter. He understood the nature of his job, which was clearly intolerant of chaos, and how it was being meted out on him wasn't pleasing.
He had been molded in a certain way, even though most military officers remain selfless, compassionate, and humble. Having sacrificed a lot to get to that level, Arthur wasn't ready to let some petty burglar mess with him. The incessant stealing was getting under his skin, and he needed to act fast.
Silent Cops
The obnoxious porch pirates were sweepers of all packages. They would pick up anything and everything from Arthur's doorstep, including toiletries, vehicle components, and other expensive items. Their modus operandi was to wait for the homeowner to leave and strike immediately, lest they get caught in the act.
What made the matter worse was repeated reports to the local cops about the issue going unattended. The police seemed unconcerned with the locals' plights and their continued ravaging by these thieves. They became a defenseless lot against these rodents, and it looked like they would need the likes of Arthur to come to their rescue.
Vengeance Executioner
He decided to become his neighborhood's executioner of vengeance as the entrusted people seemed unconcerned. Seething with rage, the exasperated military officer thought of an ideal way to make these thieving box cutters take to their heels, at least when it comes to his property.
Arthur's Navy SEAL training gave him some unquestionable abilities that involved participating in some unconventional warfare activities. Trust him to borrow some lessons from that to push himself mentally, physically, intellectually, and emotionally to devise a revenge plan. This knowledgeable officer was about to turn the heat up on the muggers with an unexpected move.
A Well-Crafted Booby Trap
Arthur tapped into his knowledge of designing, constructing, and piecing together several mechanical contraptions to prepare a booby trap. He intended to make one that wouldn't only prevent the pirates from stealing but also embarrass them in front of everyone. His plan had to instill a crucial and permanent lesson.
While crafting his invention, he also thought of a possible altercation with the authorities, so he decided to make it harmless to the unfortunate scumbag who'd pick it up. As the law required him to protect both life and property, the best Arthur could do was to frighten them enough to ensure they never returned.
Packed Element of Surprise
After running over his plan to confirm its veracity, Arthur reasoned that causing a small explosion would be an effective way to shock someone to their core. So, he decided to implement his element of surprise plan. He thought it would be enjoyable for anyone watching while, at the same time, least expected by the burglars.
Although he'd made sure his plan would have no physical ill-effect on the thief's well-being, it was still better to try it out. He also thought of not letting any of his neighbors know what he was about to do just in case someone accidentally let the cat out of the bag.
Purchasing the Components
On finalizing his plan, Arthur headed to the local hardware to pick up the needed components of the booby trap. He was surprised by the look the cashier gave him, which clearly showed that his purchases were odd. Unperturbed, he went on picking one item after the other until he had everything he needed.
Luckily, no one asked questions, so he proceeded to pay and left. At home, he embarked on piecing together his masterpiece, making sure the puzzle gave an impression of a specific shipment item. When the magic trap box was done, he had a smirk on his face, perhaps impressed with his creativity.
Hard Reality in Testing
The crafted magic box was put to the test immediately to verify its functionality. That's when Arthur discovered the hard reality of what the initial test results were. The blast left him with temporary hearing loss in both ears. When he recovered his hearing, he decided to give it another run, but now with both ears covered.
Every test outcome returned a successful result. With the impressive conclusion, he rushed back to the neighborhood hardware to pick up the last piece of this puzzle. Did you at any time think he'd run this plan without installing surveillance cameras? How then were the results to be relayed?
Lights, Camera, Action
For the better part of the day, the homeowner was at work, but he didn't want to miss any chance at watching the intruder fall for his majestic ploy. His low-quality lens was so perfectly installed that it wasn't easy for anyone to pick it out unless they had prior knowledge about it being there.
He presumed that it would not be long before the scumbag stopped by, as it was his usual routine to pick up "his package" at the doorstep. With his hunting expedition in full swing, Arthur was surprised to see someone enter his compound and head straight for the parcel on his porch.
A Female Intruder
The discretely installed gadget at the entryway captured everything so clearly that even the homeowner was left doubting if it was the low-quality one, he had invested in. He had also linked it to his phone through an app so that he did not need to be present at home to monitor everything over the computer.
Arthur marveled at how the thief approached his doorstep with a panache akin to someone who owned that house. A closer examination of the footage revealed that the suspect, contrary to his expectations, was a female. Her next move was totally unexpected and out of the norm!
Door Bell Ring
In an interview with KGW, some burglars admitted to ringing doorbells before breaking in or picking up anything left outside. This was confirmed when Arthur saw the female mugger ring his doorbell, perhaps to confirm if anyone was home at the time. Of course, he was out at work, so no one answered the door.
Immediately, the lady noticed the motion of the sensor lights, which made her step back due to uneasiness. It's then that the military officer noticed a gateway vehicle parked at a distance with a male driver who seemed to be pushing his compatriot to speed up things before they could be spotted.
A Loud Explosion
The lady intruder responded to the guy's communication to the letter like an officer following orders from their seniors. She went back to the porch to pick up the package, but not before re-surveying the area to make sure no one was around. With no one spotted, she picked up the item.
A loud explosion was heard and she stormed off to the automobile, shrieking and terrified like a kid in an attempt to hide from what had just happened. In her rushed escape, the robber had fumbled with and dropped her phone on the front porch where the package was placed.
Contents of the Box
The clearly relaxed, happy, and grinning Arthur had laced his booby trap box with a plate that stopped the release of a firing pin. It had been safely secured with a fastened buckle to the front door's knob such that lifting the box made the plate fall off, leading to a loud crash.
One didn't have to lift the box since a slight touch was all it needed for the plate to fall off to trigger the firing pin of the 12-gauge shotgun. The result is the menacing loud bang that the lady robber dealt with on the spot. Was the craft legal, though?
The Police Verdict
Although the cops ignored the front door robbing menace, they responded with speed when the booby trap exploded. Why? Apparently, it's illegal in that country to creatively combine systems that harbor the potential for explosion without appropriate permits. Arthur didn't have any, even though he had considered the mugger's safety with his creation.
Loretta Cool, the police department spokeswoman, would hear none of his explanation, going ahead to give him a darning report. In fact, she even stopped him from leaving the area because they needed to complete their investigation into the incident. They considered the illegally crafted harmless gadget a health hazard.
Pointless Specimen Experiment
According to the officers, it was possible for the gadget to cause harm, so they held that Arthur was wrong to take matters into his own hands. Loretta was categorical that his actions crossed the line and were purposefully designed to harm the intruders. In fact, the trap posed a danger to passers-by!
The military officer decided to perform a live test on the safety of his gadget by dropping a tomato into the box. He exploded his masterpiece, from which the specimen came out unscathed to confirm his hypothesis. The cops would still hear none of it and chose to stick to their guns.
Tread Carefully!
After the cops left, Arthur and his neighbors, who had gathered due to the commotion, started discussing in hushed voices how to deal with the porch pirates. Clearly, the cops weren't interested in dealing with the matter, nor was it going away. Since their interests had been piqued, the officer advised them to tread cautiously.
Booby traps are dangerous if not correctly built and could lead to deadly results. Everyone agreed to adopt a signage system where they would all have "Beware" or "No Trespassing" placards to warn the thieves. They would be affixed at various strategic and visible locations within homes.
The Rebel Officer
This uniformed officer was, however, an adventurous fellow who, apart from believing in God, would not take things lying low. His invention had given him pleasure which he didn't want to let go of; instead, he craved more. Legal difficulties or not, he decided to continue pursuing his creative ways of capturing robbers.
He took delight in bringing lawbreakers to book in his line of duty to face justice, but he didn't see anything wrong with his actions. In any case, his bang-box had caused no harm to anyone at all. He continued setting up the porch pirate traps against police orders.
It Pays to Persist
Since repeating something helps reinforce the message in multiple ways, Arthur's insistence on using his masterpiece did just that. In no time, another intruder came lurking in his compound and tried to pick up an unattended package. As we now know, the result was an explosion, impressing the gadget planter who was watching from his couch.
For a good reason, his satisfaction was beyond explainable imagination. For a long time, he had watched his hard-earned money go down the drain to these crooks, yet he had the solution. It felt fulfilling to use a scary 12-gauge shotgun for revenge, albeit somewhat clumsily.
Robbers Capturing Spree
Of course, his antics angered the authorities, but they were helpless since his gadget had not inflicted any harm on anyone. Instead, they started paying attention to the porch robbery menace and even apprehended a few culprits. Meanwhile, Arthur's invention continued to shock more unsuspecting robbers, thanks mainly to his doorbell footage.
The police even reached out to the military officer, with whom they had now forged a close friendship, to arrest as many culprits as possible. He would hand over his recorded films to the local area police department for review before arrests took place. The neighborhood was slowly returning to normalcy, or was it?
A Cat-Thought Idea
To make the nabbing more exciting, Arthur decided to bring his cat into the picture. Boots, the feline's name, was an intelligent furry friend that was a tactful hunter with an excellent success rate. It means it produces a lot of litter. It's from this waste that its owner thought of replacing the box blast.
He resorted to packaging the recent delivery boxes with Boots' poop instead of using the blasting dust or even the pins that would go off at the drop of the plate attached to the doorknob. The excitement of seeing a stranger pick one of the boxes up was untold. What happened?
Punctured Over Expectation
The Amazon printed box picked up wasn't opened on the spot. Which robber would have the time to even do that? The military officer's anticipation and pleasure at knowing the intruder's reaction was punctured instantly. His anxiety would, however, soon be put to rest by one of his neighbors.
The next-door friend let him know that he spotted the thief throwing away the parcel not far from his home, perhaps after realizing that he didn't hit it big. Although expectation excites and motivates us to achieve more, this thief's supposition was punctured by what he got, even though the box was an expensive one.
A Strange Note
Apparently, Arthur had also inserted a note in the box for the unsuspecting mugger, which he had also read and rightly dropped with the box. It was a nicely crafted greeting to the box picker, saying, "Hello, I can see you." Furthermore, the letter cared to let them know that they'd been smacked right in the face.
The sheet of adhesive paper went on to inquire if they had enjoyed the smell of feline excrement or otherwise. Of course, the neighbor understood nothing of what was going on but still hated that, despite their concerted efforts, these crooks were still not going away.
Sharing Notes to Improve
The next-door neighbor inquired about what was happening, to which the uniformed officer obliged him just in case it could be extrapolated to the community. As they continued to discuss, the neighbor, who had fully taken to the idea, also proved beneficial, coming up with some insightful thoughts.
Arthur listened intently, much like a student in a class looking to improve his grades, in this case, his gadgets and crafty ideas. With the pop of a bulb on his head, he decided to incorporate the new line of thought into his already effective methods. What are we exactly talking about here?
A Wonderful Treat
The new, fresh, and brilliant idea motivated Arthur to re-design his 12-gauge blank shotgun, and it involved using a balloon loaded with glitter and confetti. Although confetti was first used in 1881 at a New Year's Eve in Paris, France, according to Scientific American, he found it ideal for his course.
His idea was to have the balloon burst on the opening of the box, exposing the unfortunate burglar as a clown. He envisioned the box having a pin attached to its lid that, on opening, would trigger the intended action. However, the strategy did not work as well as it was anticipated.
Growing Distaste for "Porch Pirate"
As Arthur was still working around his modifications, those who had been robbed were getting angrier by the day. They were best placed to advise others yet to fall victim to such crooks on how to avoid falling into their dragnets. In fact, many of them felt the term "porch pirate" doesn't fit such thieves.
The argument was that a more pejorative term would suffice for such caliber of lawbreakers, at least according to Christine Hyatt, a local. It was painful enough to lose their hard-earned cash but to let them get away with it was not something they were ready to let go of.
Stretching the Limits
The glitter idea did improve the gadget, which initially involved using cat litter and trash, but it didn't do much to deter criminal activities. However, the blank shot implementation compensated for the machine's shortcomings. The fear it instilled in the unsuspecting criminals provided amusing moments.
With the improvements, soon Arthur's invention found itself on the internet. A hot debate ensued about his actions, some praising his move while others casting doubt on it. There are those who feel he took his act of retribution too far and even became unethical. Unsurprisingly, those who supported him resonated with his predicament as they had become victims of these goons.
How Bad the Matter Is!
Reports indicate that there has been an incessant increase in porch piracy cases in the U.S., such that most people have lost the most lucrative items to them. Christine, who doesn't understand how some people can comfortably and vehemently support such scumbags, has suffered a great deal at their hands on multiple occasions.
She's a caregiver for a child with diabetes, meaning they excessively rely on online medical dispensing services. Without timely delivery of this medicine, she can't sustain her child's life. Unfortunately, she's been a perennial victim of these thieves' antics, leaving her and the toddler at a great loss and untold pain.
More Damage Than Good
In one year, Christine lost more than 20 different packages right from her doorstep to these unrelenting muggers. Six of those stolen goods were diabetes medical supplies and equipment for her daughter. How, then, were she and her daughter to cope with the continued presence of these scumbags?
Her pain pushed her to adopt Arthur's tactics. At least that would save her some stock for her little one, who needed it dearly. The bait boxes worked wonders as she was able to catch some of the thieves. In turn, she got some much-needed mental relief and, of course, the medicinal supplies for her daughter.
A Mountain to Surmount
The health and safety of a community can become complicated and indeed compromised when porch pirates wreak havoc at will throughout the neighborhood. Who knows, when they lack something to steal at the doorstep, they'll eventually graduate to full-blown burglars, breaking into houses without care, provided the culprits get what they want.
These are the fears that ran through Christine's and Arthur's minds before they decided to go public with the matter. In so doing, they believed society would rally behind them, and in numbers, no one would dare try to steal from them again. To their relief, everyone approved of their push and came on board.
Heated Social Media Debate
The two started a heated debate online, especially on the social media site Reddit, which hosts over 430 million monthly users. The fifth most visited online space in the U.S., according to SemRush, ran a dedicated thread about the subject of porch piracy and what people thought about it.
Expect people to have differing opinions on such emotive and divisive matters. Within the thread, some people strongly supported the homeowners' actions, while others chose to support the thieves. Although many reasons came about, it came as a surprise that anyone would speak for someone stealing packages from doorsteps. Did it even make sense to start with?
Senseless Points
The common trait of people supporting the scumbags was nothing short of dishonesty, and it was absurd that they would even support and preach porch piracy. Their demeanor echoed arrogance all the way, akin to saying that they could steal from their own porches.
Well, it didn't get lost on Arthur and Christine that such internet users are easily described as "keyboard warriors" out to advance unfounded analogies. The incorrect and faulty premises are no respecter of anyone's property, even the smallest item. Whatever lies in one's compound is theirs, especially the ones with their registered names, and no one can contest that anywhere.
Calling Out the Authorities
A coin has two sides, and so does this matter. Those who expressed their disdain for the porch pirates outweighed non-supporters, and they advanced many positive points. They strongly rallied behind Arthur and Christine and gave pointers on how to deal with the matter. Their rallying cry was that it was about time they cared for themselves.
Of course, they didn't forget to cast an accusing finger at the authorities who seemed to operate in an alien land to theirs. They felt let down by the cops who'd failed to apprehend offenders and bring them to justice, almost appearing to be in cohort with the thieves.
What Do You Think?
As tough as it was, the community pulled together to address the problem. However, some pertinent questions have emerged from this scenario. What would you do if you were in Arthur's or Christine's shoes? Would the police be involved in your matter, or would you go it alone?
The questions don't just end there. Can anyone stop these doorstep thieves by themselves? Well, it's never a brilliant idea to ride in a patrol car's backseat, even when the cops aren't properly doing their jobs. Whatever one does, one must not forget that the most crucial thing is to always stay on the right side of the law.