A package was taken from a Langley, B.C. doorstep as part of a "stupid scavenger Halloween thing," not a theft, according to a note left when it was returned.
The large cardboard box was left on the porch, where it had been placed the day before by a courier.
A note taped to it read, "Okay so there you have your package returned original packaging unopened – I did not steal it – in fact it was all apart (sic) of some stupid scavenger Halloween thing."
The writer apologized, acknowledging it wasn't theirs and shouldn't have been taken.
"Enjoy the day. Thanks and again truly was a game not theft," the note read.
The package was left at the door in the middle of the night when the power was out, a day after Courtney Thomas – who'd been expecting the package – shared surveillance camera video of a woman running off with the box.
Thomas said she was dumbfounded by the explanation.
“Her excuse that it is a scavenger hunt – how do you come up with that?” she said.
“I feel like that note, if nothing else, is proof that she learned a lesson and sees there’s repercussions to her actions and maybe will think twice. But I don’t buy that it was a scavenger hunt.”
Thomas knew she was getting a delivery just before lunch because she got a notification to her phone.
"My camera was giving me an alert," she told CTV News Wednesday.
She pulled up the surveillance feed and watched as a courier brought the package to her front door.
"Then four minutes later I got another alert… I thought that was funny and I opened it again," she said.
What Thomas saw was a woman walking up to her porch. Video she shared with CTV shows the woman disappear from frame for a second, then run back through the frame towards a truck, with the package in hand.
"I immediately called police," Thomas said.
"I was worried about other people having their packages stolen along the same route."
Local police confirmed they're investigating, and that the woman in the footage is a suspect.
Speaking to CTV News Thursday, Sgt. Alexandra Mulvihill called the person's scavenger hunt alibi "original," but said Mounties still want to speak to her.
"Theft is theft, regardless of whether it's a scavenger hunt or not. If you don't own it, it isn't legally in your possession," she said.
"I would suspect the media and Facebook attention that has come as a result of the video certainly may have played into the end result of (Thomas) getting the package back."
Thomas said it was another theft that prompted her to buy the camera in the first place. She said about a month ago, two of her family's ATVs were stolen.
The camera she chose turns on when there's movement in her front yard, and sends a notification alerting her of activity.
It's the same way Edmonton resident Clem Ho was warned someone was trying to get into his house earlier this week.
"I got an alert on my phone from the video doorbell that there was motion at the front door," he told CTV Edmonton.
He watched as two men tried to pry open his front door on Tuesday.
"The adrenaline starts pumping. I mean, my body was vibrating," he said.
In his case, he used the two-way microphone to call out to the would-be thieves, scaring them away from his property.
Fortunately for Thomas there's no damage to her home, and she now has parcel back.
Before its return, she said she wouldn't be devastated without the greenhouse it contained, "but a lot of people do rely on mail for a lot of important things."
She hopes sharing her story makes everyone think twice before approaching her front door.
With a report from CTV Vancouver's Allison Hurst and Angela Jung
