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MURRAY — Murray police say an alleged burglar was found after a Utah woman's surveillance camera caught two people stealing UPS packages off her porch.
Laura, who prefers we do not use her last name, said she first noticed the missing packages when she found an empty porch after work.
“I get a lot of shipments from Amazon, over the Internet, and I was expected some packages when I got home from work and they were not there,” she said. “I went on my Amazon account and it said that all three packages had been delivered.”
She said she checked her porch again, then her yard, looking anywhere the packages may have rolled or been hidden. When nothing turned up, Laura said she turned to the security cameras her husband insisted on buying.
“My husband always wanted to have those cameras installed and I thought it was a waste of money,” Laura said. “I just didn’t think anything like that would ever happen to us. We just live on a quiet street, quiet neighborhood. I’ve ordered stuff from Amazon for years and I’ve never had anything like this happen.”
She said the video showed one package arrive around 11 a.m., followed by another two around 3 p.m. Laura said after the second delivery it wasn’t long before she had her suspects on camera: “Within two minutes we see the red car, or the red truck, come and we had footage of (a woman) taking the three packages,” Laura said.
They are investigating if there are any further incidents before they do anything. It would be ideal to work with other agencies and just see if they have had incidents similar to this and look into that further.
–Murray police detective Kenny Bass
Murray police detective Kenny Bass said the footage was clear enough an officer quickly found and identified the truck and one of the suspects in the vehicle — a result that Laura said took her by surprise.
“I was really excited when the police officer, within two hours of my report, he had all of my packages back to me," Laura said. "They had been opened, but, yeah, he had them all back to me within two hours.”
She said it was lucky they even had the footage. After resisting her husband’s idea, Laura said they only had the cameras up and running for a few months before the burglary: “I am really happy because I don’t think they would have caught had I not had that video surveillance,” she said.
Since many people do not have security cameras to rely on, Bass said people need to rethink their delivery times and addresses: “My best advice is to try to have them delivered to a home that is occupied or a business," he said.
Bass said police haven’t made any arrests yet, but they are still investigating the case. He said charges may still be filed.
“They are investigating if there are any further incidents before they do anything," he said. "It would be ideal to work with other agencies and just see if they have had incidents similar to this and look into that further.”
