BUFFALO N.Y. (WIVB) — Tis’ the season for pesky porch pirates. State police say there’s been an uptick in recent years and they expect it to get worse during the holidays.

Isabelle Starr says she left her Buffalo home Sunday around 5 p.m., and within 20 minutes, the package on her front porch was stolen.

“Primarily, the biggest thing running through our head was that we left the house maybe 20 minutes beforehand. If we were running late we could’ve caught this, we could’ve still had our package, so yeah, just not thrilled,” Starr said.

The entire incident was caught on camera. In the video you can see a woman walk up to Starr’s home, grab one of the packages, and hide it under some type of blanket. The woman then knocks on the door before walking away.

Starr was warned by other neighbors that someone in the area was stealing people’s packages. She was shocked to see that someone would do this.

“We’ve been told by our neighbor that there is a porch pirate around, but we’ve never seen anyone. Just that there’s a lady who likes to steal packages, and I don’t know if that’s the same woman he’s talking about, but it is a woman who took my package,” she said.

The woman stole a home appliance totaling around 50 dollars.

State police recommend having items sent to your work or to someone you know will be home. If possible, they urge installing some type of camera outside; this could help police catch thieves.