HOUSTON – A quick delivery and then a quick steal.
At first glance, surveillance video shows a normal, everyday delivery at a home in Mission Bend. A FedEx driver strolls casually up the driveway with a $400 TV. You see him walk away and just eight seconds later a man in gray sweats and a beanie walks up just as casually, throws the TV on his shoulder and steals it. Fast forward just a few more seconds and the FedEx driver passes the home -- where the thief just left -- to exit the neighborhood.
"They had to have seen each other," says Franchele Young, the owner of the home where the television was stolen around 2:35 this afternoon. "Both before the TV was taken and after."
Ironically Young is a mail carrier for the U.S. Postal Service. She says the TV was ordered by her son -- an Army reservist who is moving into a new apartment.
Young notes that the FedEx driver didn't bring a scanner to the front door to scan the box, left the TV in plain view and didn't park in the best location.
"The delivery driver didn't park in front of the house," she points out. "Parked on the side of the house where there was no visibility. And also that it took 12 seconds from the delivery until he left."
Harris County sheriff's deputies are now investigating. As we head into the holiday season they have advice for people ordering packages online.
"Have some recipient sign for them because if you have someone sign for them the package is not being left on your porch," says Deputy Broderick Green. "Someone signing for it or have it delivered to your job."
Franchele Young is frustrated and looking for answers.
"It's a TV but it's bigger than that," Young says. "It's the fact that someone would go out of their way and target hardworking individuals as my son and myself and take something that we work hard for. Get a job."
Investigators have a very vague description of the thief. They are not calling the FedEx driver a suspect but say they definitely want to talk to him to see if there is any connection to the thief.