Irvine police warn of a prolific porch pirate caught on camera stealing again
A seasoned porch pirate is prowling about again, and the Irvine Police Department just released surveillance video showing the man nabbing a package from the front of a home.
The suspect, 39-year-old Anthony Brian Palusso, is familiar to police as he was wanted and arrested in 2017 for the same crime spree -- stealing packages.
Video recently posted on the Irvine Police Department's Instagram page shows Palusso pulling up in a gray car to a home, quickly walking up to the house with a baseball cap on and cigarette in his mouth – grabbing the package, and scuttling away to his car.
In December 2017 police announced they had arrested the Mission Viejo man for a package theft spree. At that time, police said the thefts were ongoing for several months in the neighborhoods of Orchard Hills, Stonegate, Portola Springs. He was also known to frequent Cypress Village and Woodbury.
At that time, Irvine police said neighbors had circulated Palusso's image on flyers, and social media. In 2017, Garden Grove police located and arrested Palusso at a hotel after they got a tip from someone who saw his image on a news broadcast. He was arrested on an outstanding warrant and taken into custody.
Porch package theft-prevention tips from Irvine PD:
- Schedule your deliveries when you know you will be home
- Take your packages in as soon as they are delivered
- Call a trusted neighbor or a friend and ask them to hold on to your delivery until you can get home
- If available, use the delivery service's locker service for self-pick-up
- Use a smartphone garage door control application like "myQ" to allow delivery services to deliver your package inside your garage