Security camera footage captures the moment a suspected porch pirate stumbled into a Queen’s homeowner’s trap by attempting to steal a bogus parcel left on the stoop.
Carlos Mejia decided to take matters into his own hands last week, leaving “decoy packages” at his door in the hopes of apprehending one of the bandits in action.
“I was just trying to make an example for those out there doing the same thing—stealing from others,” Mejia told Storyful in an interview.
A video from Mejia’s home security system has gone viral on TikTok with over 800,000 views, showing a man entering his yard on Saturday, approaching the front steps, snatching a box, and attempting to put it into his backpack.
At that point, a visibly enraged Mejia storms out of his residence, waving a baseball bat.
“Oh, s-t, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, I just didn’t want nobody to take him, bro!” The scared suspect yells.
“What have you got in there?” Mejia inquires, and the alleged thief boldly declares that the item in the bag is his.
The man exclaims, “You can have everything, bro,” as the bat threatens him.
The invader continually claims to live on the corner, but Mejia ignores his mutterings.
I don’t give an f-k! Get on your knees,” he tells the man.
Mejia posted a separate video on his TikTok page that shows the alleged thief trying to flee by scaling a fence, but the homeowner pulls him to the ground and holds him down until police arrive.
Cops caught the suspected porch pirate, 36-year-old Victor Stazzone, as seen in another video, which shows the accused thief passionately shouting for an ambulance and moaning about his hand.
“Officer, what is the reason for my arrest?” Stazzone inquires while lying face down on the ground, handcuffed.
Stazonne faces accusations of petit larceny, criminal possession of stolen property, and criminal trespass.
Mejia later published photographs on TikTok of what was inside the decoy package, which contained some old French fries and a notecard with the message, “Keep stealing our s-t and you won’t [sic] make the next year b-ch a-f-king c-t!!”
