Citrus Heights Police Searching For Package Thief

CITRUS HEIGHTS (CBS13) – Porch pirates are at it again only this time the thief is caught in HD and police now have a good lead.

"You see him come up, he looks at the packages, thinking about it, then he looks right at the camera," said the homeowner with the HD video.

The thief may want to think twice, after all the video was captured right through the doorbell and sent straight to Citrus Heights P.D. Then the homeowner posted it to Facebook and it went viral.

"Within a minute he just took off and was on his way," she said.

Fearing retaliation, the victim wanted to remain anonymous, but said the thief's not-so-nice red Santa sack was full of other packages and there must be more victims.

"It's really violating to see somebody at your front door looking through your stuff," she added.

As it turns out she wasn't the only one. Another neighbor may have been hit.

"It's pathetic, it shouldn't be happening at all. People's packages are something that should be left alone," said Don Beaver who lives nearby.

His wife was expecting a package and it never showed up.

"This is ridiculous," he said.

Sacramento Police recently did a sting and placed bait packages out for porch pirates and made several arrests.

They said package theft is up this year, but believe the cause is more online shopping.

Experts recommend devices such as doorbell cameras.

"I'm able to talk to the UPS guy and tell him where to hide things just in case," said the homeowner of the video.

But still, it didn't work out as planned for this victim. At the very least, Amazon will replace those packages.

"It's more that it's just not right and that he's doing at all of my neighbors and going door to door," she said.

If you do have a package stolen, report it to your local police department. There are even ways to file a report right online.