HOUSTON – It’s the holiday season, and porch pirates are busy across Houston. While package theft isn’t new, it tends to spike this time of year.
Police in West University were able to track down two women behind a string of missing packages using new technology and traditional police work.
The department said the evidence linking them to the thefts included pawn shop receipts and surveillance video of the homes they hit.
The thieves were caught on camera going right up to the front door. Their vehicle was also recorded, giving police the information needed to track them down.
West University police used their virtual gate camera system, which includes license plate readers and live-feed cameras at all entry and exit points to the community.
“So this is a portion of our virtual gate camera system,” a West University police officer said. “This would be our live feed version. We also have an additional camera which is our license plate reader. Those two types of cameras combined create our virtual gate camera system.”
West University PD spokeswoman Katie Wilson said both suspects have since been charged with theft.
“Through investigation and talking with both suspects, they openly admitted to committing these crimes in West U,” Wilson said.