Porch pirate takes debit card feet from pregnant homeowner, drains account
KDVR Fox 31
EATON, Colo. (KDVR) — An Eaton woman is on high alert after she says a porch pirate followed a delivery driver, walked onto her driveway and took her husband's debit car while she was feet away in her garage.
The thief took the card from the family's front porch almost as soon as the delivery driver set it down. Fortunately, the homeowner had a surveillance system that captured the brazen porch pirate taking off with her package.
But nothing could have prepared April Clement and her two children for what would happen.
Theft captured on camera, homeowner feet away
In her Ring doorbell camera video, you can see a FedEx driver delivering packages to her home. Minutes later, a man dressed in all black walked onto the Clement's porch and swiped her husband's debit card.
“In the video, you can see how fast it happened," said April. "He was just watching them."
“It happened in the past when someone put in the wrong address and they just were picking up a package, so I didn’t think much of it," said April's husband Landon Clement.
Landon started getting notifications from his bank about his account being drained.
“He called in on the phone, pretended to be me, and said 'can you move this from my savings into my checking account? Then move this from my Disney World savings account.' Soon as it all got to checking, he pulled it out in less than an hour," said Landon.
The thief took more than $8,000. Some withdrawals were as much as $2,000 at a time.
“A bunch of neighbors have videos of him parked in front of their house," Landon said.
Theft leaves expecting couple financially devastated
The couple hadn't ordered a new card and wasn't expecting the debit card delivery, but the theft couldn't have happened at a worse time. The Clements are expanding their family expecting their third child: April is eight and a half months pregnant.
“He knows we’re a young family heavily pregnant with two kids and it was still I see you and I'm still going to take you for everything you have," she said.
Their bank refunded about $2,500. They are now facing a huge financial blow. The couple wanted to warn others to be on the lookout for porch pirates following delivery drivers.
“There are people bold enough with you right there inside 10, 20 feet away to take from you," said April. "So be aware there are people out there brazen enough to do that.”
Eaton Police say they have a few leads but have not yet caught the suspect. They say the biggest thing to do is to get a doorbell camera to protect yourself and your packages. It also gives officers a one-up by helping to identify the suspect.