A security camera helped one man recover items, he says, were stolen just after they were dropped off by UPS.
It's a problem that's happened before in one southwest Bakersfield neighborhood. Paul Hernandez sent us footage from his security camera of someone swiping a package off his front porch.
After talking with neighbors, he learned others were missing packages too.
The camera captured a woman in a red car stealing a UPS package delivered to Paul Hernandez's front porch. The car pulls into his driveway, then a woman with dark hair gets out, walks up to the house and returns with a package that's not hers.
Hernandez says he reported the theft to police, then started looking through the neighborhood for the red car. He found it two blocks away.
When Hernandez's neighbor heard about the thefts, he noticed a birthday present for his daughter was missing. But, instead of reporting it Jason Frost confronted the driver of the red car.
"They didn't admit anything. When I ran to go get some pizza, when I came home, the neighbors said someone had thrown some stuff over my door. And, it was the exact same things that we had ordered," said Frost.
We went to the house where Hernandez found the red car parked. We spoke with a man there who told us Barbie Bowden was arrested Friday morning, accused of stealing the packages.
Inmate records show she was booked into the Kern County Jail for a felony charge of receiving stolen property and another charge of petty theft.
"From what I heard, she would follow the UPS truck around. And, then once they would stop, she would get out of the car and go get the stuff," said Frost.
Bakersfield police say there are steps you can take to make sure your packages get to you. "I would say if you are ordering an item online and having it delivered to your home, have somebody designated to pick up the package, to meet the delivery person. Maybe make arraignments with a neighbor," said BPD Detective Dennis Eddy.
