A woman in Long Beach, California, has gone viral thanks to her determination not to become the victim of a porch pirate.
Shirah Booker installed security cameras from Ring on her home, and thanks to the system she caught a sticky-fingered passerby who wanted to steal her mail.
In the April 18 video Booker shared on her Facebook page, a woman walked through the yard in front of the house before she stopped and walked up to the doorway. She peered at the mailbox and removed the envelope resting on top, looking around to ensure no one saw her before tearing it open and taking its contents — or so she thought. As she began to put the emptied envelope back on the mailbox, Brooker burst through the door and confronted the near-thief.
“Give it back!” Booker demanded as she grabbed the woman’s wrist to retrieve the stolen object.
“I didn’t get nothing!” the woman responded.
“Get from my goddamn house, do you hear me?” Booker shouted before shoving the woman away. The homeowner watched and followed the woman to ensure she walked away. She then went back inside her home and called the cops.
“i called the cops and she was like so what did she take? I was like NOTHING. i got all my s–t back. Even the stamp from the envelope 🤷🏾♀️,” Booker said in the comments section of her video.
She also captioned the clip, “You may wanna think twice about stealing from my house. Just FYI 🤷🏾♀️ I see everything! Someone’s always watching.”
In response, many weighed in and commented about what they found humorous while also praising Brooker.
” Damn right💪🏾💪🏾💪🏾”
“Omg the way I just hollered 🤣🤣🤣”
“She wasn’t ready to get served like that 😂😂😂😂😂😂”
“You go girl!”
Speaking to ABC 7 about the now-viral moment, Booker explained she got an alert on her cellphone at around 11:30 a.m. Thursday and that’s when she quietly approached the front door.
“I kind of opened the door a little quietly ’cause I want to catch her in the act. I don’t want her to run. I need you to know I’m coming,” she says. “For the most part, I think of myself to be calm, cool and collected, but sometimes you do have to get a little rice crispy and snap, crackle and pop. People need to know you’re not the one to mess with.”
Booker said her self-defense training made her feel confident that she had control over the woman and she remained unafraid. The mother of three, who said she has a daughter on the autism spectrum, recently hosted a block party to promote awareness of the disorder in the neighborhood. She told the news station the letter the thief tried to take was a thank you note.
“guess i have to wait until tomorrow to mail your letter 🤷🏾♀️🤦🏾♀️,” Booker commented on Facebook of the note.
Meanwhile, Yahoo Lifestyle reports no arrests have been made in the incident.
