When one fed-up mom caught a porch pirate red-handed, she decided enough was enough. The California woman frightened the thief so badly that he instantly did something unexpected.
A mother in Glendale, California, became furiously angry and took action after witnessing a porch pirate taking goods from her neighbor. According to Shannon Brandon, she was eating breakfast with her 21-year-old son when she saw a car parked in front of their house.
Shannon Brandon (Credit: YouTube)
Two males emerged from the backseat of the vehicle and reportedly started to visit several neighbors’ porches as a man and woman sat in the front seat. “They both had hoodies on,” Shannon told NBC Los Angeles. “We just thought they were going to visit the neighbors, but then they got out and went to opposite homes.”
Two suspects began strolling down the street together and then split up. (Credit: YouTube)
However, it was Shannon Brandon’s son, Derek Brandon, who witnessed one of the men pick up a package. “I told her, ‘I saw that guy just reach down and take the package,’” he recalled. “‘Mom! That guy is stealing the package!’” The California mother then acted quickly as her son got out his phone and began recording. “I started filming, and she ran out, and I started hearing her scream, and I’m like, ‘What’s going on,’” Derek said.
Shannon Brandon causes the porch pirate to stop dead in his tracks (left). He then makes an about-face (right). (Credit: YouTube)
In the footage, Shannon can be heard yelling at a would-be thief as he flees her neighbor’s house with a package under his arm. “Stop! Go put that back,” she is heard yelling. “Right now. Put it back!” With his tail between his legs, the would-be thief did as he was instructed and put the package right back where he found it. “I just reacted because I was so mad that somebody would just do that,” Shannon explained.
Shannon wrote the vehicle’s license plate and called the police. Officers responded to her call and searched the neighborhood. “I thought it was great, she just scared off these people,” James Farr-Jones, whose package was returned, said. “I thought it was really funny, honestly, that they came back and did it instead of running or dropping the package. It’s the best ending.”
However, Shannon Brandon wasn’t the only mom who had grown tired of porch pirates. Christine Hyatt from Colorado Springs had been the victim of package thieves when she decided to give them a taste of their own medicine by putting trash-filled Amazon packages outside her front door.
Christine Hyatt puts trash in an Amazon box to trick porch pirates. (Photo Credit: YouTube)
Hyatt told KKTV in Colorado Springs that at least 20 packages had been taken from her porch and that she had managed to deceive the thieves into taking her rubbish off the property for free for a third time. “We forgot to set our trash out…so we were overflowing with trash,” she said. “I’ve had packages stolen and I went, ‘You know what? I have extra boxes — let’s see if someone will take our trash!’”
The thefts, according to Hyatt, were more than simply a hassle. Her daughter’s diabetes medication was one of the stolen goods. “She can’t afford to have her own medication stolen just because people are jerks,” Hyatt said. “This is my way of fighting back.”
In her next decoy package, Hyatt said she planned to include cigarette butts, kitty litter, and fast-food wrappers, KKTV reported. “My daughter told me that it was gross,” Hyatt said. “But they deserve it.” According to SafeWise, an online guide to security and safety products, over a 12-month period, an estimated 260 million delivered packages were stolen, CNBC reported.
“Package thefts unfortunately are on the rise, perhaps in part because of the increase in online shopping that started with the pandemic in 2020,” said Teresa Murray, a consumer watchdog for U.S. PIRG, a nonprofit consumer advocacy research group. However, women like Shannon Brandon and Christine Hyatt demonstrate that there is a way to fight back against porch pirates. All it takes are a few assertive actions from no-nonsense moms who are teaching these thieves a lesson they won’t soon forget.