Laurie Pringle, 54, She said has lost a dozen of the package to the pirate’s terrace in Hamilton.
After a couple of years and about a dozen stolen packages, Laurie Pringle was fed up. Her neighbors, too.
Living in a row house on a busy street in downtown Hamilton, the 54-year-old said she and her neighbors knew they had to do something to stop the porch pirates from stealing packages. So they conspired.
“We were chatting. I have a dog, they have a German shepherd, and we jokingly said, ‘ We should fill it with dog doo.”Of course, my little puppy couldn’t fill a box if we waited a week,” Pringle said.
And then she had an idea of the moment.
“While I was cleaning the cat litter, I thought,’ It wouldn’t take much to fill a box with this stuff and I thought, ‘it’s Christmas and maybe I should help Santa with the blacklist, and instead of coal, we can give the porch pirates some cat shit.’”
She threw the cat litter in the box, glued it, and left it outside his front door. She placed the box so that the Amazon logos would stay face up and look like any other package.
About 30 minutes later, a man walked to his front step, took the package, and left.
The video of Pringle’s doorbell last Thursday seems to show the man putting the package-full of fecal matter — in his jacket before walking away.
“We did a happy dance and celebrated our righteous deserts,” Pringle said.
But he didn’t report the robbery to the police. She said she lost confidence in them after her inability to prevent previous robberies. Instead, Pringle posted about it on social media, garnering praise and support from others.
“This just shows how many people are frustrated by this.”
Hamilton Police launch Operation Ama-gone
Police in Niagara made an arrest Wednesday after saying a man was stealing packages from porches.
In Hamilton, police launched Operation Ama-gone, which targets package theft.
“They usually repeat offenders,” Const. Krista-Lee Ernst. The operation, she said, has already yielded results.
She also said that many package thefts go unreported due to built-in theft protocols from companies like Amazon.
“For Hamilton police to have the statistics and the report on file, we need those reports still to be reported to us,” she said.
While people online praised Pringle’s trick, Ernst said others shouldn’t do the same.
“We are not encouraging the public to engage in criminal activity because potentially [someone] could return to their home and they are identifying their home and residence,” Ernst said.
“In this case, there was video evidence, something for the police to move forward within an investigation.”
Meanwhile, Pringle and his neighbors are preparing another special package for the pirate.
“I’m just waiting for our cat to replenish our supplies.”
Ernst said some of the tips to prevent package theft include:
- Ask carriers to put packages out of sight.
- Arrange deliveries to family or friends you know will be home.
- Have your package delivered to your work.
- Have your package shipped to a store.
- Have the local post office hold your package.
- Request a signature confirmation when your package arrives.
This article published source in cbc.ca