Security camera footage shows the moment a suspected porch pirate walked into a Queens homeowner’s trap by trying to steal a fake parcel deliberately left on the stoop.
Carlos Mejia said he was “done” with thieves following FedEx and UPS trucks and raiding his parcels, and decided to take matters into his own hands last week by leaving out “decoy packages” outside his door with the aim of catching one of the bandits in the act.
“I was just trying to make an example for those out there doing the same thing … stealing from others,” Mejia told Storyful.
Video from Mejia’s home security system, which has gone viral on TikTok with more than 800,000 views, shows a man entering his yard on Saturday, approaching the front steps, grabbing a box and trying to stuff it into his backpack.
At that moment a visibly angry Mejia storms out of his house wielding a baseball bat.
“Oh, s–t, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, I just didn’t want nobody to take him, bro!” the terrified suspect exclaims.
“What you got in there?” Mejia asks, to which the alleged thief brazenly claims that the item in the bag belongs to him.
“You can have everything, bro,” the man cries out while being threatened with the bat.
The intruder repeatedly claims that he lives on the corner, but Mejia dismisses his mutterings.
“I don’t give a f–k! Get on your knees,” he orders the man.
A separate video posted by Mejia on his TikTok page shows the alleged thief trying to flee by scaling a fence, but the homeowner yanks him to the ground and holds him down until police arrive.
Cops arrested the suspected porch pirate, identified as 36-year-old Victor Stazzone, as seen in another video, which depicts the accused crook dramatically screaming that he needs an ambulance and moaning about his hand.
“Officer, what am I being arrested for?” Stazzone asks while being placed in handcuffs lying face down on the ground.
Stazonne was booked on charges of petit larceny, criminal possession of stolen property, and criminal trespass.
Mejia later shared photos on TikTok showing what was inside the decoy package, which contained some old French fries and a notecard with the message: “Keep stealing our s–t and you wont [sic] make the next year b–ch a– f–king c–t!!”