Caught on camera: Woman ‘shops’ for fall decor, steals from on homeowner’s porch
ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) - A woman in the Tower Grove East Neighborhood said a thief used her front porch to shop for fall décor, and it was caught on her doorbell camera.
Rose Thompson told First Alert 4 that on Sunday morning, just before noon, her cameras caught a gray Kia reverse in front of her home on Michigan Avenue. The female driver walked right up to Thompson’s porch and stole several pumpkins, a sign and other fall décor from it.
“Why?” asked Thompson. ”[It is] as if she was shopping for them in the store!”
The video shows the woman returning after loading the items into her car.
“Frustrated and violated a little bit,” said Thompson’s neighbor, Valerie Pennington-Gray. “Plain and simple, we’re the type of people who, if you would’ve asked, we would’ve given you more than what you took.”
Thompson said the woman returned three hours later in another outfit and with a trunk full of what Thompson suspected were stolen items.
“I felt a little ridiculous calling police,” said Thompson. “Why should they have to put resources on something like this? For someone to just come and remove things so carelessly and the manner in which she did it makes it that much more hurtful. Where is our humanity in the community? Why are we not caring about each other enough just on the fundamental level of respect.”
Thompson said she knows this isn’t a violent crime, but with criminals, she says you never know what they’re capable of. First Alert 4 reached out to St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department (SLMPD), which has assigned a detective to the case, Thompson says. She says investigators told her the license plate was traced back to a rental car, making this more complicated. Thompson and her neighbors wonder if they’ll ever get the answer as to why this woman pilfered their pumpkins.
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