Daniel Colin Kelley, 43, has been charged with grand theft and was booked into the Lake County Jail on Sunday after being caught on camera stealing packages
A porch pirate has been charged after a woman caught him stealing several items on her doorbell device and posted the footage on Facebook.
Daniel Colin Kelley, 43, has been charged with grand theft and was booked into the Lake County Jail on Sunday.
Lauren Bigham revealed to police that Amazon had notified her that some of her packages had been delivered successfully, according to ClickOrlando.com.
However, upon returning home she was astonished to see the packages had been opened and were empty. The arrest report also states that several packages were missing altogether.
Apparently the stolen items included mattresses, twin-size bunk beds, a copper dish set, frying pans and Xbox video games.
Fortunately for Bigham, she checked her video surveillance, which actually captured footage of the culprit in question.
The shots of him were quite clear so Bigham decided to post a screenshot from the video to Facebook, in hopes of identifying the man. ‘I took a screen shot of the video and it was a really clear picture of his face so I was hoping maybe someone would share it,’ Bigham said.
Lauren Bigham checked her video surveillance (above) which actually captured footage of the culprit ringing the doorbell
It seems people flooded in with messages of support. ‘It was subsequently shared over 900 times and within two hours I had several people message me with the man’s name and even his address,’ she revealed.
Facebook user Heather Beyers posted a photo of Kelley online tagging Bigham with the caption ‘This man was caught on camera stealing pkgs off of my son’s porch.’
Bigham of course informed the Leesburg police about this, which is when they confronted Kelley at his home in Okahumpka.
He initially lied claiming he knocked on her door, and several others, to ask if she or anyone else in the neighborhood needed yard work done.
Police said ‘far before it was even determined that he would be arrested,’ Kelley had already been in touch with a lawyer and a bail bondsman.
Heather Beyers posted a photo Kelley on Facebook tagging Bigham with the caption ‘This man was caught on camera stealing pkgs off of my son’s porch’
However, police were granted a search warrant, which is when they discovered some of Bigham’s packages.
Kelley’s bail was originally set at $2,000, but a judge raised it to $10,000.
Leesburg Police Department warned future porch pirates about the dangers of getting caught.
Lt. Joe Lozzi said ‘I would caution them that there are countless neighborhood watch groups so whether they have cameras on their front doors or good neighbors. There are many eyes upon you if you continue to commit crimes of this nature.’
Bigham of course informed the Leesburg police about the discovery of Kelley on Facebook, which is when they confronted him at his home in Okahumpka