Man in wheelchair catches thief stealing package from his porch

Reporter: Michael Hudak Writer: Matthew Seaver
Published: Updated:

A doorbell camera video shows a man walking up to an apartment, picking up a package and taking off. The man the package belongs to uses a wheelchair and wants to ensure this doesn’t happen to someone else.

Jeff Judy knows he’s an easy mark for many different people simply because he’s in a wheelchair. Judy says he lost the use of his legs several years ago in a motorcycle wreck.

On Monday afternoon, he got a notification that a package had arrived, but when he opened up his front door, he saw someone walking off with his delivery.

Judy tried to get the thief to stop, but that didn’t happen. Now, Judy is without his package and his peace of mind.

Judy shared the video of the theft with WINK News. In it, you can see the man walk up and take the package. When Judy opens the door, the man stops and looks back at Judy before walking away with the package.

“Once he saw me, he knew he had an easy victim. And he could just get away very easily. It’s very unfortunate. He did start out like he had a conscience. But then I guess the greed or whatever motivation took over.”

Judy’s neighbor, Mary Shortridge, said, “if your heart is not toward helping somebody like that, rather than hindering and hurting them, you’re bad.”

The man who took the package didn’t know that Judy had a second camera. Judy said the picture below is from that camera, showing the man who took the package off his porch.

Package thief suspect. (Credit: Jeff Judy)

Those pictures, and the video of the theft, are now in the hands of Lee County Sheriff’s detectives.

Judy said the package’s contents weren’t the most important, “it was a box of putty. Caulk, basically 30-foot rolls of butyl tape,” but said it could have been. “It could have been somebody’s medication for all we know. My wife gets packages all the time with medication.”

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