Cheyenne Porch Pirate Caught On Camera Grinching A 5-Year-Old’s Christmas

CHEYENNE — McKenna Lynn Ferraiuolo of Cheyenne particularly loves a recent porch pirate video that’s circulating on X (formerly Twitter) that shows a would-be thief running off with what he thinks is a brand-new television.

What he’s actually stolen, however, is the used TV the family was throwing out. The owner of the video just put the old, broken television into the new box, taping it up carefully to look like a recent delivery.

The porch pirate sneaks up, oh so carefully, to score what he thinks is a new flat-screen TV — but what he has actually pirated is a broken piece of junk destined for the landfill, and hopefully, a headache.

“That’s hilarious,” Ferraiuolo told Cowboy State Daily.

It’s something she’d like to try herself on a particular porch pirate, who she says was caught on a candid door camera Grinching her 5-year-old cousin Sam’s Christmas present.

This particular porch pirate made off with gifts from her grandma’s porch while the grandmother was away in Denver for Ferraiuolo’s grandpa’s surgery, and the whole thing was caught on an inexpensive door camera.

“The camera caught the guy going down the stairs to the apartment with no package, and then coming back up the stairs from the apartment with the package,” Ferraiulo said. “That was just 28 minutes after the UPS guy dropped it off.”

A Sentimental Gift

The box actually had two presents, Ferraiulo said, both related.

“(Grandma’s) dad actually just passed away, and he loved to do trap shooting,” she said. “So, she got my cousin, like, a little Nerf gun trap shooting set.”

Ferraiulo went back again after the theft to check whether the porch pirate might have put the Nerf gun trap shooting set back. 

“Like, maybe it was an accident,” Ferraiulo said. 

But the man’s vehicle was there and, when Ferraiulo took a peek in the window, there was the stolen gift in the man’s back seat, ripped open. She could see her grandmother’s name clearly on the package. 

Ferraiulo called police to report what had happened and waited around for an hour for law enforcement to respond, but the man left the scene before an officer could arrive.

“We questioned him about it and told him, ‘That’s for a 5-year-old, it’s his Christmas present,’” Ferraiuolo said. “And he was extremely drunk and just continued to say he didn’t have the items, even though they were right there in his vehicle, and we could see them. Then he got in his car and sped off.”

Porch Pirates Seem More And More Common

Statistics on porch pirates are difficult to nail down, Cheyenne Police Department’s spokesperson Alexandra Farkas told Cowboy State Daily. 

That’s because they’re tracked with larceny reports, which include other thefts besides just porch pirates. 

For 2024, Cheyenne Police Department reported 130 fewer larcenies than 2023, down to 503 from 633.

But anecdotally, Laramie County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Aaron Veldheer told Cowboy State Daily that he’s heard a lot more reports about porch pirates lately than in the past.

“Whenever it occurs, we do encourage people to give us a call so we can investigate it,” he said. “One good thing that people are doing now is putting up door cameras. I don’t endorse a particular brand, but if someone does come up and grab their package, that way we have a better-quality video.”

He also likes the idea of a secure drop-box built into the home for packages, which he’s seen on some newer homes.

Amazon recently has begun offering secure lockers and drop-off hubs as well, giving homeowners an alternative delivery location if porch piracy is a problem in their neighborhood. 

Veldheer agreed that many porch pirate incidents probably don’t get reported to police because there’s an embarrassment factor involved. And, too, the items may often not be worth a lot of money.

“It’s a violation factor, that someone came onto my porch and took my things from my house,” he said. “That can be disheartening, because you’re inside, you’re sleeping, your family’s asleep. But please call us and let us know.”

Don’t Try To Steal A Kid’s Christmas

Ferraiulo and Sam are close and like to call each other “chicken.” It’s a little bit of an inside joke the two have with each other.

“He used to say a lot of really naughty words when he was, like, 2," Ferraiulo said. “So, I just started telling him, instead of saying those words, say ‘chicken’ or ‘chicken nugget,’ and so we both call each other chicken now.”

Because they are so close, Ferraiulo has already taken steps to replace Sam’s stolen Christmas gift so he will never know that some Grinchy porch pirates tried to take Christmas away from him.

“We have a super close bond, so I took it very seriously that somebody stole his Christmas,” Ferraiulo said.

She has also formally reported the matter to police, providing the video evidence from the door camera, intending to press charges against the man for the theft, even though it’s a small item and probably only a misdemeanor.

“Maybe if there were more consequences, people wouldn’t try and steal a kid’s Christmas present,” she said. “It’s just so rude.”

Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.