Roanoke woman catches 'porch pirates' in her neighborhood

Teens caught taking package off someone's doorstep

ROANOKE, Va. – A Roanoke woman caught a group of teens attempting to steal a package in broad daylight Wednesday afternoon.

Mindy Craft was driving from her Raleigh Court home to get lunch when she spotted three teenagers taking a package from a neighbor's doorstep.

"They were right here on the corner," Craft said. "They weren't trying to hide anything whatsoever."

Craft watched the "porch pirates" from her car and drove off slowly hoping they would put the package down. However, when the three ran across the street with the package, she made a U-turn and startled the group.

 "I stopped and yelled out the window and honked the horn and I saw one boy drop one of the packages."

Craft retrieved that package and gave it to a neighbor who was home, then decided to drive around the neighborhood a few minutes later to see if the teens were looking for any more packages.

 "I don't know what made me decide to be a vigilante for the day, but it was just a gut feeling," Craft said. "I felt like they weren't going to stop here. They were on a mission."

Craft spotted the teens snooping around another home and told a nearby Roanoke police officer what had happened. The officer caught and arrested two of the three teens, recovered more packages from their backpacks, and made a phone call to one of their parents.

"The dad was, like, 'He's supposed to be in school,' and the officer says, 'Well, I have him in cuffs in the back of the squad car," Craft recalled.

Craft has doorbell cameras and motion-detecting lights on her home and hopes her neighbors do the same after this porch-pirate incident.