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“If the packages are visible from the street, you face a much higher risk of having them stolen,” North Vancouver RCMP spokesperson Sgt. Peter DeVries said last month.

Some Vancouverites aim to deter porch pirates with front-door security cameras, many of which are Wi-Fi enabled. But thieves are brazen. Often all these cameras do is allow residents to watch from work in real-timeas their stuff gets stolen.

Vancouver resident Ken Szeto recently shared footage of one such incident, which occurred last week outside his Shaughnessy home. He was stunned at the shameless, midday theft, in which a young woman climbs his front steps, snatches the delivery, and continues on her way, all in full view of Szeto’s camera.

“My surveillance camera is not discreet,” he said. “I purposely bought something that’s very easy to notice.”

The crime itself was not as easy to notice, however. It took Szeto, who didn’t realize he was expecting a package, over a week to realize he’d been robbed. Szeto said a friend of his niece, who is staying with the family while she attends UBC, asked about a package she had ordered — about $12 worth of cosmetics — after receiving a delivery notice. They reviewed the video and soon discovered where it went.

“We were just speechless and couldn’t believe it. I think the majority of the people, when they approach our front door door, they can see the surveillance camera,” he said. “She’s from Hong Kong — something like this is unheard of for her,” he said.