Nearly a third of all packages delivered in the U.S are stolen by “porch pirates”. These individuals, simply walk up to residential homes and grab unattended packages in broad daylight and most of these criminals never get prosecuted.
This all changed when one man took matters into his own hands. Arthur Russel was sick and tired of having his packages disappear while he was not at home and untrusting of the authorities to take any action, Russel decided to take justice into his own hands. With a big boom and a pop, Arthur smiled. Nobody messes with an ex-navy seal!
Reasonable Man
Russel came from a middle-class family with simple core values, he believed that you worked hard for the things you had and took care of them forever. And he had tried to live his life with this simple motto in mind.
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He even prided himself for his self-discipline and that was part of the reason why he had such a hard time letting go of the idea of “porch pirates” taking his stuff. The first time it happened, he let it go. The second time, he started getting annoyed but by the third and fourth time.. he was seeing red.
More and More
At first, Arthur had thought that the shipping company had made some errors. He had already paid for his package and the delivery date had come and gone. After arguing back and forth with customer services, Arthur let the matter go and re-ordered.
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A few days later, another of his package went missing, this time it was parts for his car which had cost a small fortune and had shipped from Europe. After that, his electronic orders were gone.
The Authorities
With each package missing, the shipping company had the same answer. From their end, everything had been delivered timely and properly and by all intents and purposes, Arthur should have received his items weeks ago.
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Arthur could only come to one conclusion that someone was taking his packages while he was at work. But who? and why? Fuming and annoyed, he went to the authorities who took him just as unseriously as the shipping company responsible for the package.
Proof
The police demanded solid proof that his packages had been stolen and not just misplaced by the shipping company but that was nearly impossible. He would have to catch whoever was taking his packaged red-handed to get some justice.
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He had lost hundreds of dollars by now and was at his wit’s end and hopeless that the police weren’t going to help, Arthur decided to turn to the internet. He found hundreds of thousands of other people who also had their packages stolen.
Porch Pirates
With online shopping becoming ever so prevalent, a new group of people emerged who ended up stealing unattended packaged. These folks aren’t technically considered criminals in many states yet since there aren’t proper rules around the practice yet since it is so new.
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Though, of course, socially it is considered immoral and unethical. Porch Pirates usually attack suburban homes with little to no security and usually in broad daylight since most of the residents at that time are working.
An Idea
Having learned all that, Arthur Russel was at an em passe. As he read more and more about the porch pirates, he knew that he would have to do something drastic to finally catch whoever was stealing his packages.
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And that is when he had the idea. It was going to be rather tough and some might frown at his unconventional tactics but Arthur knew in his heart that it was the only way to get even and finally stop these horrible people stealing from right under him.
Navy Seal
You see, Arthur wasn’t just your average joe. He had spent most of his life serving the country and was a former Navy SEAL. In fact, he specialized in Unconventional Warfare. And in Arthur’s eyes, he was at wat with these porch pirates.
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To become a Navy Seal, he had undergone gruelling training – both physical and mental. This had left him with a hardened mind that ran on calculation and determination and now he was going to use his unique skill sets to take down these thieves.
Hobbies
If anyone was going to get revenge from these Porch Pirates, it was going to be Arthur. He not only was a former Navy Seal but in his free time, he enjoyed building booby traps. Yep. It looked like the Porch Pirates messed with the wrong person.
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If only they knew that by targeting Arthur’s home, they had created their own undoing. And as these people began stealing more and more packages, the navy seal began thinking of the perfect way to trap the thieves and finally get himself justice.
Brainstorming
“I was thinking, how could I scare them and make them drop my package and then never come to my front porch again,” Arthur recalls. He wanted the trap to be scary enough to be effective but not actually harm the perpetrators.
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He thought about it long and hard. He drew draft after draft and came up with a few viable options. Arthur knew that the best way to design a trap was to actually make a life-size model, so the navy seal went shopping.
Three Boxes
He recalls how the cashier gave him odd looks at his rather suspicious cart. It looked like Arthur was up to no good and well, he wasn’t. He ignored the looks and began working on three traps.
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All of them would look like common everyday packages but inside would be a complicated network of traps which if they worked would startle the porch pirates to the point that they wouldn’t dare cross Arthur’s path again.
Testing
Arthur spent the rest of the day putting together the boxes, he tried his best to make them look as real as possible. Using old shipping stickers and company labels to finish his masterpieces.
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Before he could test it out, he also invested in a security camera. The Navy Seal wanted to catch whoever was stealing from him red-handed and wanted to record it all to finally give the police and the shipping company the proof that they demanded.
The First Try
Arthur didn’t live alone, in fact, he had a trusted companion, his 8-year-old tomcat named Boots. The first box to get back at these porch pirates was going to be simple. He filled an old amazon box with dirty litter and waited.
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His thinking was that whoever would swipe that box, would get a nasty surprise and would know that the homeowner was on to him. And well, that is exactly what happened. Arthur saw on his phone as a masked porch pirate “sneakily” came and grabbed the hefty box.
Neighbour’s Intervene
The former Navy Seal was overjoyed. His simple yet effective plan had worked. Arthur smirked at the thought of this pirate being hit with his cat’s dirty litter! While he hadn’t caught their face, he felt satisfied.
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Except when half an hour later, his next-door neighbour came knocking and was holding the trick box in his hands. He had found it lying abandoned a few blocks away and had seen Russell’s address on it and wanted to return it.
More Victims
While his neighbour had done the right thing, Arthur was annoyed. Clearly, the porch pirates had simply discarded the box and now the dirty litter was back again at his home for him to deal with.
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Arthur invited his neighbour in and told him everything that had happened. He was very sympathetic to the former navy seal’s anger as his packages had also been stolen but told him that such tactics wouldn’t work and would only make him a target. He especially didn’t like the note Arthur had attached to the box which read” Hi, you’re on camera. F-you thief. Hope you like cat crap”.
A Glitter Bomb
But Arthur was undeterred. He moved forward with his second design. A Glitter Bomb. This box was a bit more complicated. Arthur filled a balloon with glitter and confetti and inside created a lever.
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So, whenever the box was opened glitter would explode onto the thieves leaving them startled and in shock. And in practice, the glitter bomb worked as it was supposed to but despite the shock of it all, the porch pirates kept on coming.
The Third and Last Box
At this point, over 20 packages from his home had been stolen and Arthur’s traps startled the thieves but didn’t ever stop them from coming back again and again. But that all changed when he made his last box.
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He knew the glitter box and litter box wasn’t scary enough. The third box contained a plate that held back a firing pin, which was connected to a string that was secured to his doorknob. Whoever moved the box, the firing pin would set off a 12-gauge shotgun blank.
It Worked!
Arthur knew in his heart that this box was it. And as he watched on his security camera feed, a masked woman approached his porch yet again. This time, she had an accomplice waiting for her in the car.
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She swiftly reached down and grabbed the box and BOOM! The woman stumbled back and screamed. She checked herself for bullet holes and when she found none, ran away as fast as possible to her already moving gateway car.
Poetic justice
It was better than even Arthur could have imagined. And finally, he had gotten rid of his porch pirates. But with each deterred thief, the neighbourhood was also startled with sounds of gunshots and they were not happy.
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Everyone worried that Arthur would end up hurting someone in this over-the-top quest to get rid of porch pirates. “It never hurt me once,” he explained in an interview. “It didn’t hurt the tomato in there either.”
Police Response
Despite Arthur claiming that the “Boom Box” was harmless, state law forbids anyone from assembling explosive devices without a valid license. “Even though it’s a blank, the way the device is made is actually illegal,” said police spokeswoman, Loretta Cool.
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“If the would-be package thief is hurt in any way, the homeowner would be responsible. Even more than him crossing the line, I’m not sure if people realize that, even though this person is stealing something, he can’t intentionally set them up to be hurt”, Cool explained.
Moral Debate
Arthur posted about his trap online with an accompanying video to find more people who thought what he did was right but rather than get support, the “boom box” started a moral debate as to if his extreme actions were warranted.
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Everyone had their own opinion and advice for Arthur and while some believed that what he did was right. Many suggested that a simple “no trespassing” is better and above all, legal.