photo by: Contributed

A still image from a video depicting a person taking multiple packages off of a porch at a townhome on Dec. 28, 2022, at the Village @ West End, 4410 Clinton Parkway.

Christmas has come and gone, but package theft is still a distressingly common occurrence, as one Lawrence resident learned this week.

Alyssa Henry, a real estate photographer, ordered a tripod to use for work along with some birthday gifts for her mother, including a wall planter with three pots and a “Gilmore Girls” cookbook. She received a notification that her packages had arrived while she was at work around 2:49 p.m., and by the time she arrived home around 6 p.m., her packages were gone.

“They were coming just in time for (my mom’s) birthday, so that was very disappointing,” Henry said.

Henry lives in the Village at West End townhomes, 4410 Clinton Parkway, and she caught the theft on her doorbell camera. The footage showed that it happened just 15 minutes before she got home, she said. The total value of the packages was about $100, with each item costing in the range of $30.

Henry said she was “upset and frustrated just because it was my mom’s birthday gift” and “disrespected that that person noticed there was a camera and packages and still proceeded to grab them and run.”

In the video, a person in a hooded sweatshirt can be seen approaching the porch, quickly picking up multiple packages and running away. When the packages are removed a pillow can be seen on the porch that reads “happy place.”

Henry said she filed a police report and sent the police the video. From now on she plans to have packages sent to her workplace, where there is always someone present, or to instruct delivery drivers to drop her boxes in a less conspicuous location at her residence.

In Kansas, theft of an item with a value less than $1,500 is generally a misdemeanor, but if a person is found to have stolen from three locations within 72 hours as part of a “common scheme,” the thefts can become a low-level felony.

The Journal-World has reached out to the Lawrence Police Department and the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office to learn more about how often thefts of this kind are reported and how many are prosecuted.

“Watch your stuff,” Henry said was her best advice for people expecting deliveries.