Porch Pirate’s bungled theft attempt shown in funny video released by KCPD

A video of a man trying and failing to steal a package off a porch in Kansas City is making the rounds on social media after Kansas City Police released surveillance footage of the incident.

“A south KC resident sent us this really effective package theft prevention video,” police tweeted from their @kcpolice Twitter account. “Homeowner was out of state, but his security camera app notified him of motion, & when he saw the guy go for the box on the porch, he set off the alarm. Looks like it worked.”

In the video, a man can be seen gingerly approaching a porch and attempting to pick up a large cardboard box. However, the moment he touches the box, an alarm sounds that sends the man running back to his car and driving off.

The issue of package theft has been a major talking point recently as online retailers like Amazon have continued to grow in popularity. In 2017 alone, packages were stolen from about 11 million homeowners last year, according to Package Guard.

The homeowner in the video released by the KCPD appears to have been using a Ring home security monitoring system. Earlier this year the Star suggested using monitoring companies like Ring, among a list of other options, in order to prevent porch piracy.

Among the suggestion to “invest in tech” that scares off would-be thieves, the article suggested consumers plan to be on site when their packages arrive, leave specific instructions for package handlers on where to leave packages so that they might be obscured from thieves, or avoiding home delivery altogether and opting instead to pick expensive packages up in person from mailing centers.

This story was originally published December 3, 2018 at 5:24 PM.