Suspect arrested after a porch pirate was caught on camera in Meridian

In Meridian, a porch pirate caught on camera taking packages from a family.

Local law enforcement says that it was thanks to community policing, that a suspect has been arrested in connection to the crime.

With many people expecting packages to be delivered to their front doors during the holiday season, they face the threat of an uptick in porch pirates, thieves that steal packages from homes. This happened to Susan Ross, who shared that she was shocked to learn that she had been a victim of a crime, on Monday, this week. Also saying, that she was thankful her "Ring" doorbell surveillance caught the porch pirate on camera, in the act. “I was really shocked. I got a notification that there had been a package delivered, and I looked – there was nothing there. So, I looked back in the history and I see a guy just walking up the driveway – in broad day light, and just picked up my packages up, and took them to his can, -- and well I thought, somebody just robbed me!,” said Susan Ross, victim of a porch pirate package theft. Ross and Meridian Police Chief, Chris Read, stated that it was all thanks to community members sharing surveillance video, that was posted on a community watch page on social media, which helped identify a suspect. James Kevin Mott has been arrested in connection with the alleged package theft. “ My goodness, when the community comes together and start communicating through social media platforms, -- through community watch, and specifically with this case, -- without that, without surveillance cameras, and capturing those, the community identifying, -- and then the community communicating that to law enforcement, we were able to apprehend the person and then he’s going to have his day in court and also retrieve the items that were taken,” said Chief Chris Read, MPD.

“I was just pleasantly surprised, that’s not something that you ever expect to happen, --and it really only happened because the community got together and share, and decide that we really don’t want this kind of stuff going on in our communities,” said Read.

The Meridian Police Department hopes to solve more crimes with the help of community policing, and will have a special patrol of shopping areas across the city during this holiday season until December 26, to prevent additional personal property thefts.