Editor:
The Christmas season in 2020 wasn’t a good one with COVID-19 ruining everything. But it was also becoming a victim of crime for the first time in my life.
And so when Christmas approached in 2021, I decided to do something about it.
I had always read about “porch pirates” taking people’s packages, but never really figured it would happen to me. Then it did, with a couple of items from Amazon going missing and my friends reporting sketchy people in our neighbourhood.
I normally am home a lot but the thief managed to swoop in during one of the rare times I wasn’t around.
So the following Christmas I was very aware of making sure I was home during expected Amazon deliveries. I wasn’t going to be victimized again.
But I also set up a little surprise for anyone thinking of stealing my packages again. I took a couple of the old Amazon boxes, altered the private info on the labels and then I took the dog poop I had been collecting from my mutt Tony and filled some plastic baggies and sealed them up. I double-bagged them and added baking soda in the box so the stink would not get out.
I put together a couple of boxes and put them out on the stoop where the other ones were stolen from and then sat back and waited. It took about week but the boxes suddenly disappeared from the front of my house.
I really hope this jerk enjoyed my surprise when he opened up the boxes. I tell you, this was the greatest Christmas gift I could have received. It’s given me lots of joy whenever I think about it.
Next year, I plan on setting up a surveillance camera to try it all again.
T. Gregson, Burnaby
