Sacramento police set up bait packages to catch porch pirates

By Jason Marks

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    SACRAMENTO, California (KCRA) — If you are thinking about stealing a package off a porch in Sacramento, you should think twice. That’s because officers have dozens of bait packages set up around the city.

KCRA 3 got an inside look at how the sting operation works.

Sacramento police Officer Kenny Brandt visits a small closet at the south precinct almost daily. The room is full of empty boxes and packing tape. In that closet, Brandt boxes up fake packages with a GPS device inserted.

“Then we close them up, take them out to the neighborhoods and put them on the porch,” Brandt said. “Usually in a week, we put like five to 10 out.”

For the past six years, Brandt has patrolled the south Sacramento streets where he grew up.

Each day packages are taken off porches around the city, a crime that only gets worse during the holiday season that he understands is frustrating for victims.

“A lot of times they’ll drive in their cars and actually follow around the delivery trucks and just snatch them in a line,” Brandt said of porch pirates.

The Sacramento Police Department is hoping that thieves take the bait with their fake packages.

“The idea is to make it look as realistic as you can,” Brandt said.

Dispatchers monitor the packages’ every movement and as soon as one moves dispatchers send officers out to find out why.

“You never really know when something that you take could have a tracker in it — potentially get arrested,” Bandt said.

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