BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — Three college roommates take matters into their own hands when they track down a suspected pirate.

Call it the nightmare before Halloween. The video captured an alleged thief ripping a package containing suits off a porch in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

“I swear to God if this is my Halloween costume,” one of the women is heard saying in the video.

Even though it is not recommended by law enforcement, the victims reacted instinctively and chased the suspect in their car.

“At this point it was like fight or flight and I said no package is going to be here if I reorder it,” said theft victim Avery Barnes.

“Then I jumped up and followed her all the way down outside,” said robbery victim Hannah Taggart.

“Yeah, we’re thinking, if we’re going to do this, we’re going to do it together,” said robbery victim Leora Stieglitz.

“Do you want them to call the police? Give me the package!” they told the suspect.

“I felt like I was invincible for a moment. I know now that it could have ended very badly,” Barnes said.

With the packages full of Halloween costumes, medicine and some TV cables back in hand, the young women called the police.

“We made a police report and he made sure to tell us it wasn’t safe,” Taggart said.

Porch pirates caused up to $8 billion worth of thefts last year alone, and they seem to be getting more and more reckless.

In June, ABC’s Rebecca Jarvis rode with members of the Washington, DC Metropolitan Police Department on one of their decoy pack operations.

Officers work with community members who drop off AirTag-equipped packages in high-crime areas with the hope of reducing such thefts.

“People who know this is going on, in a way, they’re stopping people from doing it because they’re afraid that that package might be the one that was left by the police department,” Jarvis said.

“Right. And that’s really the main goal. It’s really to look at behavioral change as opposed to punitive change,” said Commander Sylvan Altieri, Metropolitan Police Department.

The program resulted in a 17% reduction in theft.