Pursuing Porch Pirates

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Right now. Sheriff Aaron Hanson, Douglas Counties chief law enforcement officer,
joins us for a few minutes. Sheriff, good morning, good morning,
Good to have you back here. I remember we I
was it last year you talked about an effort to
foil porch pirates by putting a device in some fake packages,

(00:20):
and that effort is ramped up this year. How's it going.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
We're doing good. We're going to deploy the operation effective today.
You know, they make GPS devices now that are extremely tiny.
You know that we can actually hide them in the
products in the box themselves. And ultimately the goal is,
you know, we don't want these porch pirates to ruin
someone's Christmas. Instead, I'd rather give the porch pirates the

(00:45):
gift of an all inclusive stay at the Hotel Douglas County,
complete with a toothbrush and orange flip flops for Christmas.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
Yeah, and a toilet and a cot and a toilet.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
That's right.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
What more could you ask for?

Speaker 3 (00:57):
What about these videos I see on TikTok of people
that are picking up packages on a porch and then
they explode with colors, you know, and that is that
just all bs?

Speaker 1 (01:07):
Or does that really.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
Help that that is AI And as much as my
staff would like to design package like that, I told
them I don't. I don't think that the risk manager
for Douglas County would got us. But the problem is
we know that you know, the porch pirates, they really
ramp up this time of year because they know that
this is how people today are getting a majority of

(01:28):
the items that they that they purchased, they're getting them
delivered through multiple delivery companies. And so we've got a
good relationship with the various delivery companies. And actually, you know,
this is no cost to taxpayers because the delivery companies
are actually helping us with these GPS tracking devices. They're
providing it to us. We do have some on our

(01:49):
own that we use for day to day operations. There's
going to be covert cameras set up and the entire
DCSO staff from Rope Patrol, Canine SOG they are all
already for when one of these packages goes mobile, they're
gonna track it down, whether it's in a car or
in someone's house and take the offenders into custody.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
Now, are these fake packages or are these real, real
real merchandise.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
It's a real merchant.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
In some case the merchandise could be fellingy level quantity merchandise,
and in some cases it's a high, high grade misdemeanor value.
And so you know, the goal is, hey, look, porch pirates,
why don't you get a job? Okay, go get a job,
buy your gifts the right way. Leave everybody's packages alone.

(02:37):
The most frustrating thing is we don't see these porch pirates.
They're just not normal folks that wake up and go,
you know, I'm gonna try something new and exciting today.
I mean, it's it's these repeat spree criminals. We know
the names every time we catch them, and it's the
same guys over and over and over again.

Speaker 1 (02:54):
Are there particular neighborhoods that are more prone to this?

Speaker 2 (02:58):
No, I'd say it's all across the camp and that's
why these packages are going to go anywhere in the county.
For example, you know, porch pirates just came up into
my neck of the woods, beautiful Polka Hills and stole
a package. We just put that on the DFSO facebook
page to take a look at that. You can help
this idea the culprits. But you know, in this case,
we had really great camera footage. So I cannot stress

(03:21):
enough to folks in Douglas County get get good cameras,
make sure you get your motion triggers. Give the good
instructions to the delivery company. Maybe hide your packages behind
a bush, or even have them delivered to the Amazon.
You have these Amazon public pickup locations where you don't
even have to risk them being on your porch. You
can pick them up at an alternate location.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
Well, you're at the massive hands and ranch. You also
have extra security with geese, right.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
Yeah, I doubt I've got two pretty ferocious geese. And
I pity the porch pirate that comes deep down into
Hanson Ranch to try to pill her packages off my
porch because I think they're gonna The phrase getting goosed
actually means something.

Speaker 1 (04:06):
These are territorial ferocious. These are a holes man. They
are territorial.

Speaker 2 (04:13):
That's why I got them.

Speaker 1 (04:17):
That takes care of the ferocity. Well, there was that
woman down and I can't remember Florida maybe where she
got badly injured. She was this old lady. Yeah, she
was walking in the park and these geese attackers. She
had food for them and they really went after mistake,
all right, sheriff, So have a camera and then and
tell them to hide it behind a bush. Right.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
Well, the other thing is report if you see suspicious activity.
So you see the car rolling down your block, and
just because you didn't get victimized doesn't mean someone else didn't.
So if you see someone acting suspicious on your property,
send that video, alert law enforcement because you may not
have been the victim, but you may help solve the
crime of as your neighbor down the street.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
Right, So what is the So you can put the
mind bars right away to catch them?

Speaker 2 (05:05):
We can, yeah, I mean if they're in possession of
the stolen item, there is a specific state statute. We
don't have to necessarily prove that they committed the theft.
We simply can prove that they're in possession of the
stolen item. But you know, again, given the fact that
we're going to be using covert camera equipment in equipment
in conjunction with the COVID GPS devices, I think it's

(05:27):
it's going to be a pretty locker room case for
the prosecutors and the judges, and you know, ultimately, I
think the other thing we need to talk about with
our state senators. You know, we edged back on the
penalties for property crimes years ago to supposedly engage in
prison reform. I think we got to give that a
second look because a lot of these guys are brazen
and they know they can do these crimes over and

(05:48):
over and over with little to no consequences. And people
I talk to my bosses out in the county, they're
fed up with it.

Speaker 1 (05:55):
How are we doing on the just before we run here,
how are we doing on the street racing on enforcement?
Is that backed off a little bit?

Speaker 2 (06:03):
Really really good? I mean and totally. I talked to
a lot of people that live on those high speed
corridors and they have noticed a noticeable decrease in the
street racing activity. It still exists, and our community Action Team,
the team is still out there aggressively taking these individuals
into custody, towing their cars, putting their mud shots up

(06:26):
on the on the Facebook page, and we arrest them.
We've noticed a massive decrease, and I think the biggest
thing is in unincorporated Douglas County, We've only had one
accident related fatality year to day. Now I'm knocking on
my wooden because I don't want to jinxas before the
end of the year. But you know that that combination

(06:47):
of aggressive enforcement, public education, and public compliance, it's a winner.
It helps keep people alive.

Speaker 1 (06:52):
Yeah, that is really dangerous stuff. Sheriff. Thanks, I'm Mark
Kresmin's if wait, don't chat.

Speaker 2 (06:58):
And congratulations on your retire.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
Me again Gary, Thanks man, I appreciate it. We'll get together.
That's Douglas County Sheriff Aaron Hanson.