Homeowner: 'Porch pirate' returns gifts after she was caught on camera

Virginia Quinn said video from a doorbell camera alerted her to the fact that several gifts she had purchased for her son-in-law had been stolen from her front porch.

Quinn said her UPS driver dropped the package off at 1:03 p.m. Monday and placed a rug that had been on the porch over the box, to make it less visible from the street.

“From the road you couldn’t see it because [the rug] was hanging over, but she still saw it,” Quinn said of the thief.

The security video shows a woman drive past Quinn’s home before doubling back and backing into the driveway. The woman then walked up to the porch, took the rug off the box and loaded the package into her car before driving away.

“Someone’s always looking and, with us, what she did not know is we have the Ring [doorbell camera] and we have security cameras,” Quinn said.

Quinn and her husband were driving home from Maryland when they got the notification from their Ring surveillance app.

"If you think no one's looking, they are," Quinn said.

The video of the theft was shared all over Facebook and social media detectives took on the case.

"Low and behold, 12 hours later, we had a name and had a confession," Quinn said.

Quinn said Hope Mills police found the woman, who confessed, apologized and even returned all but two of the items. The woman promised that she would return the remaining two gifts Wednesday, Quinn said.

"She was very tearful when she was here and I truly felt bad for her, but I truly hope she learns from it," Quinn said.