BURLINGTON — City police have arrested a man for stealing packages from doorsteps in the middle of the night, working with an 11-year-old “unwitting accomplice.”
Jackie Walters, 33, has been charged with three counts of larceny and with endangering the child present during the crimes.
The Burlington Police Department had received complaints of stolen packages in the Old North End and Hill section of the city last week. They later identified a man riding on a bicycle with a makeshift cargo trailer as the suspect.
At 4 a.m. Tuesday, police observed Walters riding his bicycle on North Willard Street when they saw him take a package from a porch and hand it to the child, who was sitting in the trailer he was towing.
“This is not the way a child’s sense of innocence about the holidays should be lost,” Burlington Police Chief Brandon del Pozo wrote in the department’s press release announcing the arrest.
Police contacted the Vermont Department of Children and Families about the use of the child in the thefts. The child was present for the other alleged thefts, all of which occurred in the middle of the night.
Del Pozo told VTDigger by email that most people who have packages stolen don’t formally report them, so the department doesn’t have precise numbers. But he said police have received reports of package thefts “night after night.”
Del Pozo said that to lessen the chances of package theft, city residents should look out for each other and leave notes asking delivery people to place the packages in more secluded locations on their properties or with a neighbor. He said residents can also ask that their packages be delivered to their workplaces — as long as their boss doesn’t mind.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Burlington bicyclist, with 11-year-old in tow, charged in late-night thefts.