Porch pirate leaves ‘Thank You’ note to victim

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. (CNN) – Package theft isn’t uncommon this time of the year. However, when one Minnesota woman found herself the victim of a porch pirate, she got a snarky note from the thief rubbing salt in the wound.

WCCO’s reporter, Jennifer Mayerle, learned Hilary Smith had bought a Christmas gift for her boss. But when she returned home to retrieve it…

“I looked down and there was a piece of notebook paper folded neatly on the top step where the package probably should have been,” said Smith. “So I picked it up, read it, it basically was a thank you note for letting me steal your package.”

The note was signed by “The new owner of your package.”

“I do appreciate a nicely crafted thank you note but this is ridiculous,” said Smith. “I was angry and confused and quite flabbergasted that somebody would actually leave a thank you note when they steal a package.”

She immediately posted on social media where the thank you note gained steam and caught the attention of St. Paul Police in Minnesota.

“It’s something we’ve never seen before and I don’t know what to chalk it up to it’s so unheard of,” said St. Paul Police Sergeant Mike Ernster.

Police wonder if others got a note and are now asking for residents to report these kinds of thefts.

Smith hopes the decoy package on her front porch steps is a will stop thieves and help others have a happy holiday.

“Just making sure we raise awareness that this is really happening and I don’t want people to have their holiday season wrecked to have something big stolen from them,” she said.

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