The porch pirating of electronics is on the rise as deputies responded to three incidents yesterday.

On November 6th at approximately 4:19 p.m. Deputy K.W. Suter responded to Daffodil Lane for a larceny. The victim advised FedEx dropped off his brand-new phone. Less than 30 minutes later, it was taken from his porch by an unknown male.

Later, Deputy R.W. Stamm responded to Palace Lane for another porch pirate problem. This time, it was advised FedEx dropped off earbuds. Moments after the delivery, the package was taken by the same suspect as the first incident.

The third incident took an unexpected detour from the previous reports. Deputy B.E. Vaughn responded to Marianne Place for a failed larceny. The victim had multiple phones delivered to his residence and quickly collected the package. Shortly after, he would receive a call from someone posing as an UPS employee. The untruthful UPS employee advised there were software issues with the phones and the victim needed to put the box of phones back on the porch for pickup. While the victim did not fall for the scam, he did play along by placing a box filled with jars of water and a colorful note on his porch. The resealed box was then collected by an unknown male.

In the first two incidents, the suspect was described as a white male in his 20’s with a reddish-brown beard wearing all black. His vehicle was described as an early 2000’s Honda Accord that was dark in color with “a loud exhaust”. The suspect for the third incident was described as a black male wearing a tan hoodie and dark in color jogging pants. His vehicle was described as a gray Toyota Corolla with dark tinted windows and no front license plate. It is not yet known if these incidents are connected.

Incidents like these are not new and deputies continue their investigations into the matter. We encourage residents who are expecting a high in value item to be delivered to be present for the delivery to ensure it is properly removed from the porch. We also encourage residents who receive a call like in the third incident to not comply. This is a scam.