‘I filled up a box full of dog poop’: Portland porch pirate gets a stinky surprise

The holidays are here and so too are thieves who’ll waste no time snatching up packages from doorsteps.

The porch pirate problem is one Matt Coats has become familiar with since moving to Southeast Portland a few years ago.

“I think the worst part about porch piracy is just feeling so violated. To have somebody come up into your space and take something that’s yours,” Coats said.

However, this isn’t your typical, caught-on-security-camera, porch-pirate story. This one includes some sweet, stinky revenge.

“I had something disappear off the porch and it was really frustrating,” Coats said. “I figured it would probably happen again. So, I filled up a box full of dog poop.”

That’s right, this is a story of a porch pirate, a pooch named Marlo, and poop.

Coats was sick of thieves helping themselves to his and his neighbors’ deliveries. So he hatched a plan to get them back with a bait package.

He packed an REI box with his dog Marlo’s droppings, left it on the porch and waited for an unsuspecting porch pirate to take the bait.

“I thought, ‘Well, let’s see how long it takes,'” he said.

It only took three days for a porch pirate to strike and Coats caught the crook on security camera. KGW News