Suspected porch pirates arrested in Conway-area thefts

A pair of alleged porch pirates are behind bars after deputies say they pillaged packages from several homes in the Conway area.

Walter Reed Jr., 34, and Elizabeth Swearingen, 31, were arrested Monday night and were hit with a slew of burglary and theft charges. They were identified using home video surveillance — including the Ring doorbell security system — and stopped by deputies at about 6 p.m. Monday.

They also could face charges in additional thefts, Orange County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Jane Watrel said.

Deputies say Swearingen admitted to driving Reed around in a blue Nissan Sentra, stopping long enough for him to swipe a package from a doorstep and replace it with another. She said they did it several times throughout the area and she would pawn some items if they were valuable, an arrest report states. When they were stopped, deputies found packaging from Amazon boxes on the passenger’s seat floorboard and in the backseat. Also inside of the vehicle were Pittsburgh Penguins-themed baby clothes, likely from another theft, the arrest report states.

One victim, Matthew Colman, told investigators he received an alert from his Ring video doorbell security system telling him that it detected movement at the door. The video showed a blue Nissan pull up to his house, a man getting out of the car with a package in his hand and placing it on the porch after grabbing a delivery from the doorstep.

Reed was charged with three felony burglary charges and three misdemeanor petit theft charges. Swearingen faces the same charges, plus a felony charge for dealing in stolen property and giving false information to a pawnbroker, court records show.

Last week, the Orlando City Council OK’d a deal between Ring and the police department, which allows investigators further access to the network of about 10,000 users of the devices in the city.