by A man was stunned to discover a package being stolen off his front porch by the most unlikely of culprits.
Wesley from Longwood in Florida, was on vacation with his family when he received a notification on his phone letting him know someone was outside his home
It was only when he logged into the app that he realized who it was and what they were up to.
Florida is home to around 4,000 black bears, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Adult males can weigh anywhere between 250–350 lbs with adult females tipping the scales at anywhere between 130–180 lbs.
They certainly cut an intimidating figure, so you can only imagine Wesley’s surprise when he checked in on his Ring app and saw a bear on his porch doing the unthinkable: stealing his package.
The footage, which Ring shared with Newsweek, makes for astonishing viewing, with the large bear seen lurking outside the home before picking up the package in his mouth.
“My family and I were away camping when we got an alert on our phone,” Wesley told Ring. “We saw the bear start to smell our Amazon package, turned away, turned back and took the package.”
Porch pirates—thieves who steal packages from outside homes—represent a real problem in the U.S. Research conducted by the software company Omnisend in 2025 found around one in three U.S. households have experienced package theft.
This may be the first instance of a bear turning porch pirate, but it’s fair to say this particular thief didn’t get too far with their stolen goods.
“It didn’t take it very far, just down the walkway,” Wesley said.
Wesley said bear encounters are relatively common where he lives. “It’s somewhat common for bears to walk through our neighborhood,” he said. “Seeing one walk down the middle of the street, or around the side of the house. We live quite close to a national forest. It is not the first time we have caught a bear on camera.”
The whole experience left Wesley and his family “shocked” to say the least. “Obviously, when you are hundreds of miles away, there’s nothing you can do about it, but we were enamored with the fact that he was interested in something that was not food,” he said.
This isn’t the first time unusual footage of a bear in Florida has been captured on camera. A previous video from June 2023 showed two bears dancing together.
In another equally astonishing moment from June 2022, a bear was caught on video climbing a tree to evade the authorities. Then there was the clip of the mama bear and her cub peeking through the window of a house in Florida back in January 2022.
