Highland police arrested a Gary man for stealing packages off Highland doorsteps.

Officers were sent at 2:12 p.m. Tuesday to a home in the 2600 block of Eder Street for a theft report, Highland police spokesman Cmdr. John Banasiak said in a release Thursday. The reporting party told them he’d received an alert on his Ring cam showing a package had been delivered, but then three minutes later, the camera alerted him to a man in a black jacket and gray pants picking it up and leaving in a dark-colored Ford Fusion.

As officers were looking for the car, a second call of a stolen package came in this time identifying a dark Ford sedan with an Indiana “In God We Trust” plate, Banasiak said.

One of the officers saw a man fitting the description driving a matching vehicle near Kennedy Avenue and Ross Street a short time later, he said, so they conducted a traffic stop and found the car was packed to the roof with packages, he said. The man first said he was picking up packages as part of a job where he then delivered those packages to other destinations, Banasiak said, but when the officers asked him to prove it, he couldn’t.

The officer at the first call then arrived and confirmed that the person seen taking the package from the porch was this driver who had been stopped in the Ford, and they arrested him, Banasiak said. Charges are pending, and police are still investigating, he said.

Officers impounded the Ford, and the packages were taken to the Highland Police Department, Banasiak said.

Anyone who had a package stolen should contact the department at 219-838-3184, and you will need your order invoice and identification to pick it up.

Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.