A Florida porch pirate was caught instructing a child to steal a package left outside before the youngster gleefully shouted “I got it,” and nonchalantly walked away with his new treasure.
A woman and the child, whose relationship is unknown, were walking through the Silver Bluff neighborhood in Miami around 9:40 p.m. on Jan. 29, when they stumbled across an Amazon package that was recently delivered to a home.
Seeing the white and blue plastic bag, with approximately $40 worth of clothing inside, the unidentified female motioned for the child to go pick it up, according to the Miami Police Department.
The child, wearing a red jumpsuit, white hat and holding a tablet, waddles up to the door and picks up the package before turning around and happily running away.
“I got it,” the boy shouts while holding the package up in the air.
“This makes me sick to my stomach to see this poor child being put through this,” the victim, identified as a woman named Amelia, told CBS Miami.
“I was stunned to see the incident where the child was involved. It wasn’t so much the act of taking a package. It was a child taking a package. I felt like this was an act that was not acceptable.”
Cops slammed the “heartbreaking” and nefarious scheme, saying it’s the first time they’ve encountered a porch pirate using a young child as an accomplice.
“I have never seen a crime where they are doing this,” Miami Police spokesperson Mike Vega said, according to the outlet. “Porch pirates are all over doing this. But using a child, this is the first time I have seen this.”
“It is heartbreaking that a child is doing this crime. Why would you have a child do this at such an early age.”
Amelia was alerted to the rather odd theft when she noticed the package didn’t arrive, which led her to check her Ring camera and watch the pint-sized thief in action.
“I was stunned to see the incident where the child was involved. It wasn’t so much the act of taking a package. It was a child taking a package. I felt like this was an act that was not acceptable,” she added.
The victim says she planned on filling a police report, which is encouraged by law enforcement so they could “do a more effective job of finding criminals.”
“She really should be ashamed,” Amelia told Local 10. “I don’t think she’s fit to be a mother if she puts her child through this.”
A neighbor had reportedly spotted the child with a woman recently in the area, leading Amelia to believe they lived in the area, but police didn’t say where the woman lived, according to WFOR-TV.
The police department released a video to social media asking for help identifying the adult in the video.
“We don’t know if the child even knew what he or she was doing,” MPD Capt. Freddy Cruz said. “We’re not sure who this adult is, if it’s a parent or guardian, but regardless it’s an adult that should know better.”