San Francisco Neighborhood Residents Team Up To Fight Package Thieves
SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX 5) -- Residents in a San Francisco neighborhood are banding together to fight package thieves.
Front porches have become all-too-easy targets for crooks, especially as we get closer to Christmas.
But San Francisco's Sunnyside neighborhood is saying: enough is enough, and the residents now have a plan to fight back.
Neighbors are in essence acting as detectives. They're cross-referencing their surveillance videos and using the neighborhood social media network NextDoor to keep tabs on a package thief that seems to have targeted Sunnyside.
"This is definitely upsetting our neighborhood and putting a bit of a damper on the holiday season," said Coline McConnel, who has lived in Sunnyside since 2004.
She said two of her packages have gone missing in the last month.
At first, she thought they got lost in the mail. But then her neighbor got video of the person she believes stole three of her packages.
"They saw a white jeep come by, take its plates off, and then walk up to various houses as if they are food delivery with large bags," said McConnel.
It turns out, the stretch of Joost Ave. just north of City College of San Francisco that had packages stolen wasn't the only area hit.
A couple blocks toward Glen Park at Joost and Detroit Ave., neighbors wrote on NextDoor that they spotted the same person in the same white jeep on their surveillance cameras.
Now, the entire stretch of Joost Ave. is teaming up and keeping an eye out for him.
"It's disappointing," said McConnel. "We have a neighborhood that all and all seems very safe, low crime, and it's upsetting to know that groups of people are targeting our houses with the motivation to try to steal."
It appears the thief is doing everything he or she can to not get caught, as evidenced by the effort to remove the license plates from the suspect car. It also appeared to be a well-timed effort, coming just a few days after Cyber Monday when many packages would have been delivered.
Residents say they have filed police reports. San Francisco Police had not yet responded to our inquiries as of Tuesday evening.
