LINCOLN PARK — A thief who stole a package from the porch of a single-family home in Lincoln Park was caught on security camera.
The incident is just one of a handful of reports of package thefts in the Ranch Triangle neighborhood lately, neighbors said.
Around 7:30 p.m. Oct. 30, surveillance video caught a man wearing a hooded sweatshirt and a baseball cap entering a front gate of a single-family home located near Armitage and Sheffield avenues. A few seconds later, the man re-emerges carrying a large package before leaving the scene.
The owner of the home, who declined to be named for fear of repercussions, said the package was valued at a few hundred dollars.
Once the package went missing, he and his wife decided to watch the security footage to "prove that it wasn't delivered." But "all of a sudden a person popped" into the frame, he said.
Their first reaction "was that we're a little scared," he said.
In the four years the resident has lived in Lincoln Park, he said a package has only disappeared one other time but he was not able to determine whether or not it was theft.
Wendi Taylor Nations, who lives nearby in the 1800 block of North Maud Avenue, said one of her packages also went missing last week but she did not file a police report.
The package, containing about $100 worth of clothing, did eventually turn up, but it had been opened, which led her to believe that someone stole the package but then decided against it upon seeing what was inside.
"I'm not sure what that says about my taste in clothes," she quipped.
She said at least two other neighbors claim their packages have been stolen recently as well.
According to Chicago Police, a home in the 1800 block of North Maud Avenue was burglarized on Oct. 26 and an apartment in the 1800 block of North Bissell Street was burglarized on Oct. 29.
Earlier this week, a man was charged with stealing packages from Bucktown and Roscoe Village apartment buildings.
Julio Code, 49, turned himself in Monday after police released a video of a man prying open the door of an apartment vestibule and stealing packages that were left inside, according to an arrest report.
Nations called the thefts "disconcerting," saying she and other neighbors are forced to get packages delivered to work or some other controlled environment.
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