DC police cracking down on recent wave of porch pirates with sting operations: ‘Sending a message’
Washington, D.C. law enforcement has begun targeting thieves who steal deliveries from residents, sometimes using sting operations to catch these porch pirates, who may face harsher charges from prosecutors, according to local reports.
"The once largely seasonal crime grew during the pandemic, when trips to stores were difficult, and has since become far more common throughout the year in D.C. and elsewhere," The Washington Post reported.
The report described how package thieves have made it more difficult for shoppers who were already finding common products locked up in brick-and-mortar stores due to a rise in retail theft.
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As a result, the Metropolitan Police Department has adopted tactics like baiting porch pirates. Anecdotes reported by the Washington Post included police observing one man biking past a rowhouse seven times before grabbing a box with an Amazon label that had been planted as bait.
"In the boxes were coffee and paperback books — plus location-tracking devices," the Post added.
The suspect, a 62-year-old man who had already served 40 days in jail for "four prior misdemeanor theft convictions dating to 2016," was "quickly arrested," according to the Post. Prosecutors said his prior convictions made him eligible for a felony and enhanced penalties of potentially a year or more in jail.
NBC 4 Washington reported about a sting in February in which police attached Apple AirTags to decoy packages to arrest a suspected thief.
"Police placed the packages on the steps of a private residence in Northeast D.C. and waited for someone to take the bait," the report stated. "After the packages were swiped, police tracked the AirTags and arrested the suspect."
In another sting, "officers hid in a CVS store on Capitol Hill and watched as a man stole $33.47 worth of merchandise," the Post reported, citing court documents.
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5th District Cmdr. Sylvan Altieri told NBC 4 at the time that police have started doing stings due to the volume of public complaints.
"Even though there are violent crime issues throughout the District of Columbia, when we go to these community meetings and we talk to members, citizens, part of what they speak about is things like package thefts, retail theft, traffic issues," he said.
"It’s a hard crime to really deal with, because it’s very random," Altieri told NBC 4. "I mean, people walk around, they steal. So, we started looking at the thing, like, how are we going to solve this? We can’t have officers just driving around trying to hopefully see someone steal a package."
Altieri said he has been looking for residents in his district willing to volunteer their porches for sting operations.
Theft has been up the district in general. Police reported 13,000 incidents in 2023, not including vehicle or thefts from vehicles — a 23% increase over the previous year, The Post noted.
Neither MPD nor members of the D.C. City Council immediately responded to Fox News Digital's request for comment.