A Roscoe Village man has posted video footage from his home surveillance system of a person visiting his front porch around the time that packages were stolen there last week.
Damian Jacoby, 39, says boxes containing about $33 worth of pest control and tea were delivered by U.S. Postal Service and left on his porch Jan. 5-only to disappear. He believes footage captured by a home security system video camera may offer clues to what happened, including a visit from a stranger sometime after the delivery.
So, Jacoby said, he posted footage of the first incident on YouTube and EveryBlock to warn the community.
"We just moved into the neighborhood, we love the neighbors, and we love the neighborhood," said Jacoby, who lives near the intersection of Melrose Street and Hoyne Avenue. "We wanted our neighbors to be aware, that's the main thing, that someone's been taking packages."
The video captures the Postal Service employee apparently delivering packages to the porch. After that, someone carrying shopping bags opens the gate to the front yard and up to the porch. The person is out of the camera shot for a bit and then leaves. The video does not explicitly show anyone taking any packages.
The video doesn't show anyone else coming or going, according to Jacoby, and when he got home that day the packages were gone.
But it didn't end there. Jacoby said he ordered replacement tea and video shows it was delivered-and promptly disappeared-on Saturday. He says he has video, which is not online, showing a similar-looking person visiting his front door around the time that same package disappeared, Jacoby said.
"I'm 99 percent sure it's the same guy," he said.
A Chicago Police Department spokeswoman confirmed that Jacoby had filed a report listing the packages stolen on Jan. 5 and Jan. 10, and said police are investigating.
Authorities do not keep statistics on package thefts specifically, RedEye reported in December. A police spokeswoman said CPD tries to tell residents ahead of the holiday season how to protect themselves from package theft, since people tend to do more online shopping at that time.
In the meantime, Jacoby said he plans to make the both videos available to police, and that from now on he will ship anything valuable to his office. And the tea he never received?
"I don't know if we'll order a replacement," he said.
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