South Philly couple fights back against porch pirates with a trap made from their dog’s waste

Package theft had become such a regular headache for one South Philadelphia couple that, by the time another box disappeared from their front steps, they were no longer in the mood to simply complain about it and move on.

In her FOX 29 Philadelphia report, Jennifer Lee told the story of Travis Giarraffa and Lauren Goffredo, an engaged couple who said porch pirates had been hitting their home repeatedly over the past several months. Like a lot of city residents, they had reached that familiar point where a simple delivery no longer felt simple at all. A package left outside for even a short time started to feel like an invitation to a thief.

What finally pushed them over the edge, according to Lee, was the theft of a box of toilet paper while they were just a few feet away inside their living room watching television. That kind of theft feels almost insulting, not just because something was taken, but because it happened so close to them, so casually, and in a way that makes ordinary life feel a little less secure.

So instead of waiting for the next theft and hoping police or luck would solve it, the couple came up with their own answer. It was petty, a little gross, and by their own account, very satisfying.

They packed a decoy box with their French bulldog’s waste and left it outside.

The Trap Came Together In A Very South Philly Way

Jennifer Lee’s report captures the moment the prank was born with the kind of deadpan neighborhood humor that makes the whole story work. After the toilet paper theft, Goffredo said the idea came together almost instantly while Giarraffa was already dealing with another unpleasant task.

She told FOX 29 that after the toilet paper was stolen, he said he had to clean up all the poop in the yard anyway. Her reaction was simple: “That’s it. Let’s just box it up and put it outside.”

That sentence says everything about the spirit of the thing. This was not some elaborate anti-theft operation with a hidden camera, glitter bomb, GPS tracker, or social media stunt budget. It was two fed-up people standing in their everyday frustration and deciding that if someone was determined to steal from them, then maybe the thief deserved a package full of something awful.

Giarraffa, for his part, introduced the unwilling accomplice in the scheme with a line that probably tells you all you need to know about the household dynamic. “This is Louis,” he said. “He’s our poop machine French bulldog.”

That phrase alone would probably have carried the segment even if the rest of the story had not delivered. But the rest very much did.

According to Jennifer Lee, the couple boxed up Louie’s waste, left it outside overnight, and waited to see if temptation would once again win.

It did.

The Thief Took The Bait

Lee reported that surveillance video captured someone walking off with the decoy package at around 4 a.m.

In the clip, as described in the FOX 29 report, the suspected thief appears to look around, grab the box, and take off with it. For the couple, what might have been a routine moment of frustration had instead turned into a private punchline.

The stolen package, this time, was not toilet paper or a useful household delivery. It was a box filled with dog waste that had been left there specifically to be stolen.

That is what gave the whole incident its strange little sense of justice. The thief thought he or she had scored another easy porch pickup. Instead, according to the couple, that person likely went home with something far less rewarding.

And Giarraffa wanted that outcome to be memorable.

As Jennifer Lee reported, he said the box was not just filled with waste, but prepared in a way that would make opening it even worse. He said it was “stinky and gross and a lot,” and added that he had shaken it so the inside would be dirty enough that if the thief reached in, it would get all over their hands.

That is disgusting, obviously, but it is also the whole point. The trap was designed not just to waste the thief’s time, but to make the theft itself feel revolting.

There is something almost old-fashioned about that kind of revenge. It is not polished, noble, or particularly high-minded. It is just a direct answer to a petty crime: you wanted a package, and now you have one.

The Joke Landed Because The Theft Problem Is Real

What keeps this story from turning into nothing more than a goofy local clip is the frustration underneath it.

Jennifer Lee made clear that this was not a one-time overreaction to a single missing box. Goffredo and Giarraffa said package theft had been happening repeatedly, and the prank box came only after they had spent months dealing with people helping themselves to deliveries left outside their home.

That repeated low-level theft wears people down. It is not the sort of crime that usually leads to dramatic headlines, but it changes how people live. You start watching tracking apps constantly. You rush home to beat delivery windows. You ask neighbors to grab boxes. You worry every time something gets left outside for too long.

In dense neighborhoods, that kind of petty theft can become part of the rhythm of daily life, which may be one reason the couple’s little act of retaliation struck such a nerve. People understand the frustration. They understand the sense of being tired of being patient. And they understand the appeal of seeing a thief get something deeply unpleasant instead of useful.

That does not make the solution legal advice, of course. It just makes it emotionally relatable.

And frankly, part of the story’s appeal is that it feels like one of those neighborhood revenge ideas people joke about all the time but rarely actually follow through on.

These two followed through.

They Hope It Makes Thieves Think Twice

According to Lee’s report, the couple did not just see the prank as personal payback. They also hoped it might serve as a warning, or at least a deterrent.

Goffredo said they hoped that by raising awareness, the story might make others think twice before stealing someone else’s package. That may be optimistic, but it is not hard to understand the logic. If porch pirates start wondering whether a random box might contain something vile instead of something valuable, maybe the easy thrill of the grab becomes a little less appealing.

That idea probably works better in theory than in broad practice, but even so, there is something satisfying about flipping the basic logic of porch theft on its head. The whole crime depends on the assumption that a stranger’s package is worth taking. The South Philly couple turned that assumption into a risk.

And in this case, a very smelly one.

Jennifer Lee’s report also captured how much humor the couple found in the whole thing after the fact. Goffredo said she thought it was fitting that someone had stolen toilet paper from them just before they sent out a package full of dog waste. The image almost writes its own joke.

There is also a very Philadelphia flavor to the way they handled it. It was not presented as fear or victimhood. It was more like: if you insist on acting like this, do not be surprised when the neighborhood starts getting creative.

That kind of response may not solve porch piracy, but it does say something about how people adapt when they feel nobody else is stopping it.

Police Still Want Thefts Reported

For all the comedy in the prank, Jennifer Lee also included the more serious side of the story.

FOX 29 reached out to Philadelphia police, and a spokesperson said anyone who experiences theft or another crime should call 911 or go to their nearest police district. The spokesperson also stressed that video evidence can be especially helpful for investigators trying to identify the people responsible.

That is worth noting because stories like this can sometimes make viewers feel as though revenge is the only real answer. The couple’s stunt may have been funny, and maybe even emotionally deserved, but it does not replace the need to actually report the thefts.

Lee also noted that the neighborhood is still looking out for one another, with neighbors paying attention to packages and sharing information. That kind of block-level awareness is often what makes the biggest day-to-day difference in places where petty theft has become common.

One neighbor in the report could be heard worrying about a package left on the steps, saying they did not want anyone to take it. That small comment says a lot. Even before the prank box, people nearby were already thinking about the problem, already watching, already expecting that a delivery left alone might disappear.

That expectation is its own kind of loss. Once neighborhoods start assuming theft is normal, everyone lives a little more on guard.

A Gross Little Victory, But A Real One

By the end of Jennifer Lee’s report, Giarraffa sounded more amused than angry.

“If you need some dog poo for a package, hit me up,” he joked, adding that they had plenty more where that came from.

It is a funny line, but it also captures the mood of the whole story. The couple knows they have not ended porch piracy in South Philadelphia. They know one nasty bait box is not going to clean up the whole problem.

Still, they got one small win, and sometimes that is enough to make a miserable trend feel a little less one-sided.

That may be why the story has stuck with people. It is gross, yes, but it is also a tiny act of resistance in a world where a lot of petty theft victims feel powerless. Instead of just being the next people whose package vanished overnight, Goffredo and Giarraffa managed to turn the thief into the punchline.

And if the person who opened that box really did get a faceful of Louie’s handiwork, then at least for one morning in South Philly, the porch pirate did not get the last laugh.