"My son came home, he was coming home from work around five and he gave me a call and said, 'Mom, where's the door knocker?'"
The door knocker was gone, stolen right off Martha Blood's front door in the 300 block of Delancey Street. Someone snatched it away in broad daylight.
"We think it may have happened between 3 and five in the afternoon," said Martha.
At least 13 of her Society Hill neighbors have had their brass door knockers stolen just in the last week and a half. Walk down Pine Street, Spruce Street and Delancey Street. Door after door, the brass door knockers are gone.
"This is a historical area," Marie Taylor told Action News. "People try to keep their neighborhoods nice and neat, and then people come around and take things they work so hard for."
The missing door knockers are valued between one and five hundred dollars when purchased brand new. Police believe the thieves are stealing them to sell them as scrap metal.
"Scrap metal is at an all time high," said Philadelphia Police Captain Brian Korn. "Brass is pretty high right now, so it's a quick buck."
Right now, police say brass is selling for scrap at about $2.10 a pound. But for the victims, this is about more than money.
"You have something taken off your front door especially while you're home, you feel violated, and your sense of security is violated," said Martha Blood.
Martha is waiting to put up a new door knocker. She doesn't want another one to disappear.
"Oh, yeah, I am not going to put one up right away," she said.
While some of the door knockers have been stolen between 3:00 and 8:00 p.m., others were taken in the overnight hours. And the thieves haven't been successful every time.
Police have stepped up patrols here in Society Hill, and they are asking residents to report anything suspicious.
