Package Thieves Are Jerks

I don't know what prompted me to look at the security camera footage this morning; I usually don't log in unless I have a specific reason. So it was a bit of a surprise when I saw this:

Yes, that's a picture of a guy stealing packages off our front porch yesterday. From what I can determine, he was walking past on the sidewalk, noticed the packages, turned around and came back to snag them.

Then he went around to the alley. I got a better, semi-recognizable shot of him there:

What was stolen? A leather thimble for sashiko embroidery that I had ordered for myself, and a nice set of drill bits that was a birthday present for the Sergeant from his mom.

Happily, Amazon guarantees delivery, so they are reshipping both those things at no extra cost.

Sadly, the police do not, as a matter of policy, investigate package thefts. The officer who came to talk to me didn't know why, but thought it might have something to do with interstate commerce. He suggested I contact the local postmaster general.

Poop.

Why do we have cameras? Ever since we joined NextDoor.com we hear about every package theft, car break-in, home burglary, etc. in the neighborhood. Plus the Sergeant is always paranoid that he forgot to close the garage door.

It's been useful in a few cases, particularly when we found out our dog sitter was being grossly negligent. And a few times when the garage door actually was left open. But in this case, they weren't much help at all.