AUSTIN, Texas — On Aug. 21, Andres Valdez got a notification that his package, a tennis racket he ordered from eBay, had been delivered at his fiancée's parent's house.
But he never got the chance to open it.
"Around 1:50 [p.m.], I was at work and my fiancée calls me and she tells me the package is missing," Valdez said. "So I was like, 'Well, what do you mean the package is missing?' She said, 'Somebody stole the package.'"
Valdez looked back at the Nest camera footage and saw an alleged thief carrying a package and dropping it off at the front porch.
Right after, Valdez said the person walked off with his racket.
At first, Valdez was nervous to look inside the phony package that the person dropped off.
"'Should we open it or not?' But then we kind of just kicked it and it was, it was empty," Valdez said.
While Valdez said he plans to go to the police, Vito Del Gatto, who works with home security company BSG, said it is helpful to get the car and the license plate number of so-called "porch pirates."
"If you had a camera above your garage door that's showing the driveway and the street, then you can get, you know, 'This person was in a Honda Civic and it had Texas plates and it ended with three letters,'" Del Gatto said. "Anything like that goes so much further. We encourage homeowners to have the front right corner or front left corner, you know, basically the corners of the house and rear, left, rear right and then front door. So that set up usually gets you good coverage."
It is taking measures to keep up with neighborhood watch.
"I don't want it to happen to my neighbors or anyone in Austin too," Del Gatto said.
Learn more about how to stop thieves from stealing your packages.