Police have arrested a suspected package thief thanks to the ingenious efforts of a tech-savvy teenager who tricked the would-be robber into allegedly stealing a package that contained a GPS tracking device without his knowledge.
According to Fox 13, Justin Bankhead of Orem, Utah had several packages of items valued at hundreds of dollars that were stolen outside of his property.
The alleged thief was even caught by a surveillance camera at 5:19 a.m. on Thursday, November 25th, stealing a package containing a white SMEG coffee machine from his porch.
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Bankhead shared footage of the theft on Facebook along with an appeal offering a $ 500 reward to anyone who helped him find out who took the item from outside his home.
It was then that his 14-year-old son, Cody, began to take an interest. “I didn’t care until I heard about the bounty,” Cody told Fox 13.
He quickly set about setting a trap for any possible thief.
A box was placed on the same porch in front of the family home. But this time it contained a little surprise: a GPS tracking device.
It was early Monday morning when the bankheads security camera again caught a man pulling up to the house before pulling away with the box.
When Cody discovered that the box containing the GPS tracking device had been stolen, he informed his father, who passed the message on to the police.
With the tracking information in hand, Provo police officers were able to make an arrest shortly afterwards, with the suspect later being transferred to Orem police.
Justin returned to Facebook and shared a post with clips of the alleged thief who stole the package and was later arrested.
“MADE!” he wrote. “Another package was stolen from our porch this morning, but this time Cody had a tracker in the package and we caught the guy !! Cody just made $ 500 !!! Hell yeah!”
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Justin later told Fox 13 that he hopes their story serves as a warning to all of the other would-be package thieves out there.
“Everyone has these frustrations about these guys walking around neighborhoods and having a free-for-all,” he said.
“If you go out there you will get caught.
Newsweek has reached out to Justin Bankhead and the Orem Police for a comment.
While the bankheads have hopefully stopped their package thief, others may not be as lucky during the hectic Christmas season.
In fact, package theft is an alarming, widespread problem in the United States. A recent survey by Safewise found that an estimated 210 million packages have disappeared from porches across the country in the past 12 months.
The bankheads aren’t the first family to get their own back, however. A clan in Missouri managed to trick a thief into stealing a box that, unbeknownst to them, contained only dirty diapers.
Stock image of a front door for Christmas. An alleged package thief was caught thanks to a GPS tracking device.
CRobertson / Getty
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