MARION, Iowa – (Iowa’s News Now) — Jonathan Schmidt is still in shock about what happened in front of his Marion home. He claims he has never had a situation like this occur.
“No, never,” he says of Monday’s incident. “Truth be told, I was a little shocked.”
That evening, when a package was delivered, his doorbell didn’t ring; however, his Ring doorbell did send an alert when someone else came by roughly 45 minutes later.
“That’s when I thought the package was being delivered,” Schmidt says. “I stand up to find it gone. So I checked Amazon, which claimed that it had been delivered, but it hadn’t. I found it after checking the Ring camera.”
What he discovered was unmistakable proof that his delivery had been stolen off his stoop. When it happened, Schmidt and his family were at home with the lights on.
“Kind of gutsy, I think, doing it at that time of day,” he says.
Schmidt claims he did file a report, but Iowa’s News Now says it didn’t hear back from Marion Police on Tuesday. According to the officer he spoke with, the alleged thief appeared to be a familiar face.
The Better Business Bureau offers advice on how to avoid situations like this, such as setting up delivery alerts, requiring a signature upon delivery so your package won’t be left unattended, or having it delivered to a store pickup location. If you live in an apartment, deliveries may even be made to the leasing office.
A professional recommendation to prevent porch thefts is to install home security cameras. Although it isn’t always effective as a preventative measure, it can help investigators understand what occurred and, in Schmidt’s case, help identify the perpetrator.
“I believe the best word to use is “creepy.” Especially when you can see the person’s face,” Schmidt says. “When an officer came out, I spoke with him and explained what had occurred. gave the video to him as a gift. He said that in comparison to what they typically see, it was of very high quality. I imagine that helped them.”
What was in the box that was stolen? you might be wondering. It turned out to be a few hundred dollars’ worth of TV antennas.
“I wanted to be able to pick up Iowa’s News Now over the air,” Schmidt laughs. “The black market doesn’t seem to have much of a need for those kinds of items, at least not in my opinion. He probably believed he was getting away with something significant from that kind of chuckle.”
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Source: KGAN TV
