On any given day, reports of property stolen from local citizens’ homes or vehicles fill newspaper pages, and most of those crimes go unsolved — but not one involving a Mount Airy family’s Christmas presents being taken.
And similar to the familiar saying about raising a child, it took a village — including social media and law enforcement efforts — to solve the case a city police official compared to the classic story of the Grinch.
That Dr. Seuss character schemes to steal the Christmas spirit from inhabitants of a nearby village called Whoville, including their presents.
And similar to that tale, the larceny at the home of Daniel and Jill Beaton of Orchard Street had a happy ending that could be described as a holiday miracle.
It involved an incident last Saturday when five packages, which Daniel Beaton said were Christmas presents, were removed from the family’s front porch around 9:30 p.m. The property, valued at more than $500 altogether, included clothing items such as a jacket, jeans and dress, floral bed sheets and a train set.
Along with the financial loss was the sentimental value of the packages, including something that had been sent to the couple’s 3-year-old son. “One of the presents was for him,” Daniel Beaton said of the train set from a grandparent.
Beaton explained that usually someone is always at the home, but last Saturday the family had taken a short trip to visit a relative in Alleghany County.
“It just happened to be a day when we got a lot of packages,” he said of a delivery to the porch. As the family was heading down the mountain back to Mount Airy, Beaton received an alert from the shipping company that the presents had arrived.
At some point before the Beatons returned home, the packages were stolen. Police Chief Dale Watson termed this an apparent example of a “porch pirate” case that has become prevalent in recent years in which property is stolen after being delivered to homes.
“So we were kind of freaking out,” Beaton said of the discovery that the items were gone.
Video plays role
The sad incident began a turn toward a happy conclusion, largely aided by the fact that the Beatons had video surveillance of their front porch which captured footage of the theft.
Those images show what appears to be a late-model Ford Fusion pulling up on the street, and a man with his head partially covered getting out, hurrying to the porch, gathering packages and returning to the car. He drops one, but returns to pick it up before leaving.
“They came back again 10 minutes later and took another large package,” Jill Beaton reported in recounting the activity captured.
Though feeling down about what had happened, the Beatons took action not only by contacting Mount Airy police but posting in-action video footage and still shots showing the suspect.
This was shared with fellow Facebook users in the hope someone would recognize him and give police information on which to act.
One thing led to another, Daniel Beaton added, and eventually the man’s face was linked to a name. He says the video made a “100%” difference in solving the case, since no such ID would have been possible otherwise.
There was a suspicion that the suspect lived in their neighborhood, which turned out to be true.
On Sunday, Brian Lee Tate, 38, of 144 Orchard St., was charged with misdemeanor larceny and possession of stolen property in the incident. He is scheduled to appear in court on Jan. 4.
“He was being a Grinch,” Police Chief Dale Watson said of the alleged perpetrator’s attempt to steal the Christmas presents.
“We got everything back,” Beaton said of the aftermath of the charges, mentioning how the family went from despair after learning about the theft to elation once the presents were recovered — effectively having its Christmas returned.
“It was the lowest of lows — 16 hours later, it was the highest of highs.” Interestingly, a woman who allegedly was with Tate, but apparently has not been charged, according to police and court records, was in the same neighborhood Facebook group notified about the larceny, Beaton said.
When police arrived at Tate’s home to investigate his possible link to it, Beaton said he has heard that the woman mentioned the visit was expected.
Chief Watson said such crimes thankfully have not been prevalent this Christmas, but that the season does promote those incidents.
“What we see is that whoever engages in that type of activity has become more opportunistic,” he said of people who scout the abundance of items delivered to porches during December. “This allows them the opportunity to carry out their dastardly deeds.”
Some go to great links to identify potential easy targets, the police chief said. “They may follow around the mail carrier or FedEx (vehicle).”
The chief praised what happened after the theft at the Beaton home, including the dissemination of the video imagery on Facebook which helped officers solve that crime.
“It’s just another example of how the community comes together and looks after each other.”
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com
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