LIVONIA, Mich. (WXYZ) — A metro Detroit woman who was on vacation in Hawaii found out she was the victim of a suspected porch pirate. She decided to share the surveillance video, which led to criminal charges and a whole new investigation.
The homeowner was expecting a package to arrive at her house. Since she was on vacation thousands of miles away, she checked her doorbell camera footage and saw that it had been delivered. She also discovered that it had been stolen.
Doorbell camera footage shows a man coming up to the victim's porch and swiping the box that had been delivered. He runs away and gets into a car. The homeowner who was away on vacation, decided to do what she could to figure out who took her package.
The homeowner posted the video on the neighbor's app and asked if anyone recognized the suspect.
The next morning, the woman received an anonymous tip that identified the porch pirate possibly as Justin Cutshaw. At the time, the woman said she didn’t know that he was already in police custody.
It turns out, just a few hours after the package theft on Sunday, police pulled over a PT Cruiser for a traffic violation.
Bodycam footage of the arrest shows two men, Justin Cutshaw and Justin Loham, both inside the vehicle. Investigators say both were taken into custody for having drugs on them. It wasn't until after police had looked into the anonymous tip that the homeowner received that they discovered the suspect had already been arrested and picked up on drug charges.
When officers checked the PT Cruiser that had been impounded, they found the homeowner's package. It was a baby carrier she had been expecting from her baby registry.
"If we didn’t have the video, we wouldn’t have been able to link them to this crime," police said. "But that's not all. When police executed a search warrant in one of the suspect’s homes they say they found more stolen property."
