LANSING, Mich. — With the holidays just around the corner, repeat porch pirates can now be charged with a felony.
It's a crime of opportunity, porch pirating or package theft, where your hard-earned holiday gifts get swiped right from your door step.
The crime seems to happen more during the holiday season, and now the state wants to try and stop it by giving local and state authorities more ways to prosecute the thieves.
One couple in Holt, who caught their own porch pirate, said they hope that the new law will make thieves think twice before stealing.
"I do have my eyes and ears open all the time," said Heather Park-May, who caught a package thief.
That's why Heather said when she and her husband Ben Park-May caught a woman snooping around in their neighborhood, they took it seriously.
"I took a walk down here, back on the river walk and I saw the same woman coming off the river walk carrying some items, so I continued down the river walk too...I saw a bench where there were two boxes, obviously delivery boxes that had been torn apart and just left there," Ben said.
The couple called police and their porch pirate was caught and arrested by Ingham County Sheriff's Deputies within minutes.
"It felt good. My daughter called her the Grinch stealing Christmas."
Sheriff Scott Wrigglesworth said it's tough to catch mail thieves.
"Sometimes this takes extensive follow-up to try and track down, and often times the merchandise is already gone," Wrigglesworth said.
From October to February, the U.S. Postal Service received more than 5,000 reports of stolen Amazon packages from Michigan alone. They don't have enough resources to investigate them all and the value of a stolen good needs to be fairly high in order for the federal government to take action.
But now in the state of Michigan, the repeat mail thieves could face felony charges, which is something the Park-Mays are glad to hear.
"It seems to be something that's been bothering a lot of people and a real nuisance so hopefully it deters people from doing these types of crimes."
"I think the new legislation will help, but mostly these are crimes of opportunity," Wrigglesworth said.
Before, state law did not criminalize the theft of letters, credit cards, personal information or checks unless the checks were cashed, or the credit cards were used.
Under the new law, a first offense would be a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail. Repeat offenders, who are charged with a felony, could get up to a year in prison.
Mail theft was and still is a federal crime.
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