STOCKBRIDGE, Ga. — Delivery drivers are hard at work this holiday season making their deliveries, and when they stop by Henry County couple Don Schanche and Kelli Shadwell's house, there is a tray of snacks to show their appreciation.
"My wife gets the credit," Schanche said.
For months, they had been offering the snacks to delivery drivers, but a few weeks ago, Schanche stumbled on one of the snack packs ripped open and empty on their front porch.
“I thought, 'Well, that’s odd. Somebody just couldn’t wait,'" he said.
Then it happened again, and again, and then again. That's when Schanche realized there could be a different culprit.
"A light went off in my brain,” Schanche said. “Maybe it’s not a person – it’s a critter"
After setting up a trail camera pointed at the snacks, Schanche got his answer.
The snacks intended for UPS, FexEx, Amazon and USPS drivers were being stolen by a different kind of porch pirate: an "acrobatic" possum.
The video showed it clearly.
“I thought — busted,” Schanche said. “You’re busted, buddy.”
But as he watched the footage, Schanche said the possum looked like it was on a mission.
"I was really impressed that it seemed to know what it wanted. It wanted one package of chocolate chip cookies, and that's what it got," Schanche said.
Plus, the video shows the possum holding onto the cart of snacks with its back paws and descending down to the ground. All the while, the possum was holding the bag of cookies in its mouth.
"It had some acrobatic abilities,” he said.
While he only caught the possum in the act once, he says he wouldn't put it past the possum having done this before.
"I would imagine this one on the front porch has probably been a repeat customer," Schanche said.
In his neighborhood among nature, Schanche says he was not surprised it was a possum. If he could share a bag of cookies with the possum, he'd like to know about its life in the neighborhood they share.
“I would ask that possum to tell me all about its life in this neighborhood and all the creatures that it knows,” Schanche said.
But after getting to the bottom of the mystery of the torn-up snack packs, Schanche said that it is prompting him and his wife to potentially possum-proof their sweet gestures for America's hardworking delivery drivers this holiday season.
Schanche wrote on Facebook, "Maybe we need to put the cookies in a possum-proof container!"