- Marcus Gailey stole a package in 2015 during a KSL sting operation.
- A judge ordered Gailey to pay $190 in restitution, but payment was delayed.
- Victims like Elif Ekin struggle for restitution; she fought to recover $42,000.
SALT LAKE CITY — Nearly 11 years ago, KSL Investigators set up a sting operation targeting porch pirates.
We bought a printer, packaged it up and placed a hidden GPS tracker inside the box. Then we waited for someone to steal it.
In the middle of the night, security cameras captured Marcus Michael Gailey taking the package from a doorstep.
Days later, KSL tracked him down and confronted him on camera about the theft before police eventually caught up with him.
A judge later ordered Gailey to pay $190 in restitution, plus interest, within 200 days. But those 200 days came and went without payment.
According to Stuart Young, with the Utah Attorney General's Office, that outcome is common in restitution cases.
"Oftentimes, it is pretty difficult to get restitution paid," Young said. "Realistically, I would say probably in only about 10% of the cases that restitution is ordered, that there's going to be both an ability to pay, and it's going to be completely satisfied."
Right now, more than $68 million in restitution is owed to victims of crime across Utah. That includes petty victims and victims facing much larger losses, like Elif Ekin.
Ekin owns Kahve Café, a Salt Lake City coffee shop known for making traditional Turkish coffee using hot sand and copper pots.
She opened the café five years ago and thought business was going well. Then she discovered one of her managers had been stealing from her.
"I had a manager who systematically embezzled $42,000 over the course of two years," Ekin said.
The theft nearly forced her business to close.
"I know my café won't survive," Ekin said. "Like, it just won't. I am literally running on negative zero."
The former manager eventually accepted a plea in abeyance on second-degree felony theft charges.
Under the agreement, the charges would be dismissed if she paid $32,000 in court-ordered restitution within three years.
That works out to nearly $900 a month. But it did not happen.
According to Ekin, the former manager later told the judge she could only afford to pay $25 a month.
"I still have to pay those loans. I still have a business. I still have to deal with all the repercussions of all this and the trauma," Ekin said. "Why does she get to have just $25 a month?"
Unlike many victims, Ekin decided to fight for the restitution she was originally promised.
She sent emails and text messages and made phone calls to judges, lawyers, public defenders and anyone connected to the case who might be able to help.
"That's not OK," Ekin said. "This is your life. They affected your life. You get to reclaim it."
The effort eventually paid off.
After hours, days, weeks, and months of pushing, Ekin recovered most of the money she lost, enough to keep her business afloat.
Still, Young said many restitution cases remain difficult because the people ordered to pay often do not have the means to do so.
"It is hard to get restitution out of folks who don't have the ability to pay," Young said.
Many theft suspects have a long criminal history, repeated jail time and limited employment opportunities.
The reality is, it is difficult to repay victims while unemployed or behind bars.
That brings this story back to the original porch pirate sting. More than 10 years after the theft, a restitution payment finally showed up: one check for $4.44.
