Possible serial porch pirate on the loose in Camden, New Jersey

CAMDEN, NJ (WPVI) — Camden sent pictures from a doorbell camera to Action News of a man who may be a serial pirate on the porch.

In fact, several people reported taking pictures of the same crime that recently occurred in the city, with a suspect with similar physical characteristics.

Camden County Police Sergeant Angel Nieves says what makes these crimes much more difficult to solve is that there are no specific locations where they occur.

“(It’s a) crime of opportunity. You have people following FedEx drivers, Amazon drivers, and they wait for them to go, and they go and they steal the package,” Nieves said.

But Sgt. Nieves says there are several things you can do to protect your packages.

For example, have your packages delivered to your place of work instead of your home, arrange with a neighbor to pick up your deliveries until you get home, and have the delivery company leave the packages in a safe place on your property.

Sergeant Nieves says one can’t overstate the potential value of doorbell cameras.

“It has helped us in the past to identify many parcel thieves,” he says, “and also make it public. We’re going to kick them into high gear, put a picture of the suspect on our website. So everyone will know that this person is responsible for the theft of this item.”

And Nieves says hub boxes are a great option, too.

Nieves says: “Usually the delivery service will give you a list of places that have these hub locations.”

In the meantime, if you recognize the man in this surveillance footage, please contact the Camden County Police Department.