Police reminding residents to watch for ‘porch pirates’ as holiday season approaches

(WHTM) — Police departments across the Midstate are warning residents to watch for "porch pirates" as the holiday season approaches.

Derry Township Police Dauphin County has already received reports of packages being stolen. To avoid that this year, they offer up this advice:

Consider shipping your gift to a different address, such as a friend's house or workplace—someone you know will be home when it arrives.

Have a neighbor keep an eye out if you are not home

If needed, hold your package with the shipping company.

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The governor of Ohio and city officials in Columbus are speaking out after a group of armed, masked individuals marched through the streets of the Ohio capital city Saturday dressed in black and holding flags with swastikas on them. The unidentified people were spotted around 1 p.m. walking through the Short North neighborhood, according to Columbus ABC affiliate WSYX. Individuals in the group were detained, but no arrests were ultimately made, according to the Columbus Police Department.

On the last night of their lives, Jagdish Patel, his wife and their two young children tried to slip into the U.S. across a near-empty stretch of the Canadian border. Wind chills reached minus 36 Fahrenheit (minus 38 Celsius) that night in January 2022 as the family from India set out on foot to meet a waiting van. Coordinating things in Canada, federal prosecutors say, was Harshkumar Patel, an experienced smuggler nicknamed "Dirty Harry."

(FOX40.COM) — A man accused of stealing over $35,000 worth of merchandise from several stores and reselling it was arrested, according to the Citrus Heights Police Department. On Friday, CHPD arrested a 29-year-old Sacramento man after a "detailed investigation." The man is allegedly behind numerous grand thefts across Sacramento County. Police said he targeted local [...]

New York City politicians are calling on Whoopi Goldberg to apologize for suggesting on air that a local bakery had declined to make "The View" co-host a batch of desserts for her birthday because of her political beliefs. Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella was among the local leaders and supporters who joined Holtermann's Bakery owner Jill Holtermann at a news conference Friday in front of the 145-year-old institution in the city borough of Staten Island.

An employee of a restaurant in Orange County died on Saturday after he fell off a ladder, according to authorities. The incident was reported at about 7:52 a.m. on the 3300 block of Bristol Street in Costa Mesa, according to Costa Mesa Police and Fire Rescue. Authorities said the employee, identified only as a 32-year-old [...]

Emboldened neo-Nazis have been condemned for a racist demonstration that took place in Ohio's Short North Arts District this weekend. On Sunday (Nov. 17), The Columbus Dispatch reported that police responded to a call that an onlooker had been pepper sprayed by a neo-Nazi but that no arrests were made. Gov. Mike DeWine was among the officials who expressed criticism for the demonstration.

WARNING: This story contains graphic descriptions of intimate partner violence.After months of abuse, threats, manipulation and control by her on again, off again partner, 24-year-old Marie "Mimi" Gabriel was done.She told 40-year-old Jean-Bruno "Berno" Fenelon — 16 years her senior, who started seeing her when she was 17 — to leave the south Ottawa home she'd fled to with their two young children months earlier, with help from social services.But it wasn't working. She texted the man she was se

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – Three employees of a north Columbus McDonald's are facing assault charges after allegations that a drive-thru order dispute led to a drink thrown in a customer's van and that a three-way pounding left him with a broken face bone. According to documents from Columbus police and Franklin County Municipal Court, a [...]

Samuel Woodward, a California man found guilty of murdering his former classmate in 2018 in a hate crime, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on Friday. Blaze Bernstein - a 19-year-old gay, Jewish student at the University of Pennsylvania - went missing while visiting his family in Newport Beach during winter break in January 2018. Woodward, now 27, was charged with first-degree murder as a hate crime.

Boeing has delivered layoff notices to more than 400 members of its professional aerospace labor union, part of thousands of cuts planned as the company struggles to recover from financial and regulatory trouble as well as an eight-week strike by its machinists' union. The pink slips went out last week to members of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, or SPEEA, The Seattle Times reported. Boeing announced in October that it planned to cut 10% of its workforce, about 17,000 jobs, in the coming months.

Reg Murphy, a renowned journalist whose newsgathering career included stints as an editor and top executive at newspapers in Atlanta, San Francisco and Baltimore — and who found himself the subject of national headlines when he survived a politically motivated kidnapping — has died at age 90. Murphy, who lived on St. Simons Island, Georgia, died on Nov. 9. John Reginald "Reg" Murphy was a Georgia native who early in his career covered state politics for the Macon Telegraph.

A former Red Deer Catholic school trustee who was removed from her position has failed in her attempt to have a judge reinstate her.Monique LaGrange argued board colleagues unjustly removed her from her position over social media posts and interviews.In August 2023, LaGrange posted a meme on social media with two pictures, one on top of the other: one of children holding swastika flags, and the other of children holding Pride flags, with the caption, "Brainwashing is brainwashing."After the scho

Three months ago, male model Dynus Saxon confidently strutted down the red carpet at the premiere of the superhero smash "Deadpool & Wolverine." It was one of several red carpet rides the steely eyed, square-jawed stunner had made over the last few years as his modeling career blossomed. He struck a far less assured pose late Friday as he stood quietly before a Bronx Criminal Court judge, ...

OAK CREEK, Wis. (WFRV) – Three people were arrested early Saturday morning after a traffic stop in Wisconsin yielded over a pound of marijuana, over 17 grams of fentanyl, and a stolen handgun. According to the Oak Creek Police Department, the traffic stop happened around 2:45 a.m. on November 16. The stop reportedly led to [...]