A local man took matters into his own hands after a porch pick-up from an online sale went wrong. Billy Picon says he worked together with police to try and set up a bait buy for the thief.
“My wife woke me up and told me to go look at the cameras, and I asked why,” said Billy Picon. “She said because that lady just stole a jacket from us.”
The woman pictured in the surveillance footage shows a woman approaching a house to exchange 10 dollars for a Northface jacket. However, after opening the envelop the Picons say there was nothing inside except a folded up index card to resemble money.
“I get that it’s a small amount, but who would do that?” Picon said. “It really hurts the trust we have in trying to do porch pickups, and so far we’ve never had a problem before this.”
Billy Picon and his wife tried to contact the woman through the shopping app, Let Go, but were blocked. Kristen McCree an administrator for a popular buy and sell page says when instances like this happen it can be hard getting any sort of an answer.
“There is really nothing you can do unless you have some type of security camera,” McCree said. “Most pages are not responsible for what happens during the transaction, for that sort of incident it would be better to get the police involved.”
Picon says normally he wouldn’t bother to call police over such a small fee, but he noticed the woman had left behind her home address written on the envelope. He devised a plan to try and buy something from her, and notified two police officers to be there for the pickup.
“The police just swooped in,” Picon said. “They were all for trying to help me track this person down.”
However, the one who they caught was the suspect’s husband, Corey Daniel Cazee, who was arrested on an existing theft warrant. McCree says this is a prime example why you should be careful buying and selling online.
“We really encourage our members to use electronic payment systems,” McCree said. “If you just have a bad feeling with a sale, then you should pull out because no item is ever worth putting yourself in danger for.”