A brazen thief was caught on camera swiping freshly-delivered groceries from outside a family’s front door.
The doorbell-cam footage was recorded at 4.25am on a residential street in Crawley, West Sussex.
Mother-of-two Josie Huggins, 32, first wondered if it had been some kind of misguided prank.
After knocking on neighbour’s doors and collecting CCTV from other houses, she believes the heist was planned.
The hooded figure scuttles through the snow to snatch up the box of bread and milk before hurriedly striding away with it tucked under their arm.
In the clip, recorded on February 8, a figure can be seen wearing a black hooded coat and grey tracksuit bottoms.
The crook strides across the front lawn with purpose as snow crunches noisily underfoot.
They reach the front of the family home before briefly crouching down to retrieve the grocery package from the floor.
The figure then tucks the box under their arm and picks up the pace as they scurry past parked cars to make their getaway.
‘My suspicions are that the milkman was followed,’ Ms Huggins said .
She explained that in footage from another home, the culprit can be seen scanning houses for deliveries – and mistakenly even driving down to the dead-end of their cul-de-sac.
She added the angle of the camera also clearly captures the car – which Josie believes is a Dacia Sandero Stepway.
She said: ‘The fact that they were driving the car, they have got money.
‘They probably spent more money on petrol to go and steal milk than it would cost to buy a few pints from a garage.’
Jose – whose kids are aged two and six-months – also shockingly revealed that she believes the thief is a woman.
She explained that footage shows the hoodie being hastily pulled over ‘a sort of brown bun’ on top of the doorstep bandit’s barnet.
She added the slightly odd stance of the thief as they hobble away with the crate – which contained six pints of full fat milk, a loaf of bread and possibly two pints of apple juice.
Although Josie is not sure if she ordered it that week – is down to the fact it would have been too heavy for your average woman to carry unaided.
She also said the time of night – just before 4.30 am – rules out anyone looking to nab expensive Amazon parcels from doorsteps.
‘The only thing that gets delivered at that time of night is milk,’ she said.
But while Josie – who usually works as a nanny when she’s not in lockdown – is ‘doing my own little investigation’ as a bit of fun, she doesn’t really expect the police to follow up on it.
‘I don’t expect the police to do anything, it’s just bread and milk,’ she said, adding Milk and More had kindly refunded her for that week’s offerings.
Josie said: ‘It was just annoying. I had to go out with two kids in tow to get milk.
‘If you had just come to my door and said ‘look I’m desperate can I just have some bread and milk’ I would have said ‘yes, of course’.’
The doorbell-cam footage was recorded at 4.25am on a residential street in Crawley, West Sussex, as a brazen thief swiped freshly-delivered bread and milk from a family’s doorstep
The crook can be seen striding across the front lawn with purpose as snow crunches noisily underfoot
Josie Huggins, who shared the footage to Facebook, wrote: ‘Thanks to the idiot who stole our bread and milk delivery this morning.
‘About five minutes after it was delivered.’
In a clip taken from a different angle, a dark-coloured car can be seen cruising up and down the residential street, appearing to scout around for bread and milk parcels just a few minutes before Josie’s doorstep was ransacked.
They reach the front of the family home before briefly crouching down to retrieve the grocery package from the floor
The figure then tucks the box under their arm and picks up the pace as they scurry past parked cars to make their getaway
One social media user wrote: ‘Basically just scanning houses for milk…?!’
Another added: ‘The b****y cheek of it. I would have been fuming.’
And third commented: ‘Hope you have reported it to police. Not what you want happening on a snowy, cold day.’
A spokesman for Sussex Police told MailOnline: ‘Police received report of theft of groceries from a doorstep in Jersey Road, Crawley on Monday (8 February).
‘The incident took place about 4.20am and the suspect is believed to have taken around £10 worth of items.
‘Anyone with information can report online or call 101, quoting 133 of 08/02.’