Better watch out, porch pirates: Tempe police nab suspect through Operation Secret Santa
Dec 18, 2024, 7:26 AM | Updated: 7:31 am
Tempe police arrested suspected porch pirate Ramon Lopez as part of the Operation Secret Santa holiday crime crackdown on Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024. (Tempe Police Department and Getty Images File Photos)
(Tempe Police Department and Getty Images File Photos)
PHOENIX — Police in Tempe arrested a suspected porch pirate on Sunday as part of a holiday crime crackdown called Operation Secret Santa, authorities said.
Roman Lopez, 28, was booked into jail on one count of possession of stolen property after being tracked down near Baseline Road and Hardy Drive, according to the Tempe Police Department.
The arrest was part of Operation Secret Santa, an program to deter property theft during the holiday season that started Nov. 18 and will run through the end of the year.
How porch pirate suspect was caught through Operation Secret Santa
As part of the initiative, residents in neighborhoods across Tempe volunteer to have bait packages with tracking devices set up on their front porches.
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In a video posted to Instagram, Officer Cody Conklin explained how he was able to identify Lopez as the suspect in a Dec. 4 porch pirate incident.
Conklin said he located Lopez through the tracking device and could hear it making noise from inside the suspect’s backpack. The officer used Ring camera footage from the home where the bait package was taken to strengthen his case.
“To further follow up, I was able to look through the Ring camera and identify the same backpack as the backpack that the suspect had, and the same build and whatnot to match him as the person who took that package,” Conklin said.
