Greenville police increasing patrols after multiple package thefts off porches
By Star Connor, Jordan Honeycutt
Click here for updates on this story
Pitt County, GREENVILLE (WLOS) — People who live on Brookville Drive in Greenville said they are shocked to hear that someone was spotted stealing packages off their doorsteps.
“It’s a shame how people are going around taking stuff off peoples’ porches,” Antwan Thomas said. “It’s already bad enough, it’s ridiculous people are stealing stuff. It’s already hard out here, it’s close to the holidays. People are working hard for their money.”
Greenville Police Department officials said that they have some good leads, thanks to video from a doorbell camera.
Brandon Johnson with the Greenville Police Department said the crime happened last week, and they see more like it this time of year.
“Often we’ll see this occur during the Christmas holidays. The simple fact is, a lot of folks are ordering online and there’s an increase in ordering online, so a lot of those packages are going to their homes and folks are delivering the packages during the day,” Johnson said. “A lot of people work during the day.”
Johnson said officers are stepping up patrols in neighborhoods for the holidays.
“This time of the year, you’ll see an increase of police officers deployed in the neighborhoods, just doing random ride throughs to ensure that there’s no suspicious individuals that are in the neighborhood,” Johnson said.
Some neighbors said after seeing the video that they plan on adding security cameras and a video doorbells to their homes.
Police said that’s a good idea.
“Increase in technology and install doorbell cameras around your property during this time of the year,” Johnson said. “This helps you be able to capture that (thieves), and allows us from the law enforcement standpoint to put that information out to the public and request for assistance and maybe apprehending these types of individuals that are stealing during this time of the year.”
Police are looking for a second person in this theft as well. The woman in the video could be seen talking to someone off camera.
Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.