Family: Porch Pirate Stole Package From Philadelphia Mother Battling Cancer
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PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A porch pirate strikes in Philadelphia's Kensington neighborhood, taking a package that has so much significance for a local mother.
There is likely no official scorecard for these kinds of "events" but if there were, this may have broken a record.
"The delivery said it got delivered at 1:34. At 1:35, someone walked down the street, walked past here and then came back up and took the package and just walked off," said Billy Gillmore.
The whole thing was caught on a neighbor's surveillance camera on the 2400 block of West Huntington Street. And like many others, Gillmore took to social media with it.
Package thefts are notorious in the city, especially during the holiday season and police say video has become an important tool for them.
"My mother has Stage 4 neuroendocrine cancer," said Gillmore.
But for Gillmore and his mother Winifred, this theft has been a blow to the spirit.
"She's been resigned to the house, mostly for the past three months and this was her first gift to herself," Gillmore said.
In that package was about $80 in clothes that she had ordered for herself.
"No matter what it was, I'm going to ask her later. I'm going to buy whatever she was buying," said Gillmore.
One minute it was there - literally the next - it was gone. And Winifred's hope, according to her son, is that the man in the video can somehow make good use of the women's clothing.
"No matter what it was, I get paid on Friday. I'm going to ask her later, I'm going to buy whatever she was buying," says Gillmore.
