GOBBLE SQUABBLE

PETA’s robotic turkey struts downtown San Antonio for vegan awareness

Travis Beaker appears at a Thanksgiving event in West Palm Beach, Florida.

On Thursday, December 18, downtown San Antonio revelers may have to pause for an unusual sight. A walking and squawking turkey, wearing a tiny festive Santa hat, will be strutting at the corner of East Commerce and Losoya Streets at noon as part of a vegan awareness event.

The bionic bird is named Travis Beaker in honor of Blink-182 drummer and Kourtney Kardashian paramour Travis Barker, who follows a plant-based lifestyle. According to a release, the gobbler is powered by AI, which probably accounts for its stilted speech patterns.

The spectacle is the latest stunt from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), arguably the world’s most famous animal rights nonprofit. A crew of “elves” will be giving away vegan holiday roasts to encourage people to ditch a carnivorous lifestyle. Beaker for its part harangues anyone who buys a turkey.

“Turkeys are thinking, feeling beings who love their families and value their lives, and they don’t want to be carved up on the holiday table any more than we would,” says PETA President Tracy Reiman in a release. “PETA is eager to share savory meat-free roasts that can move anyone to go vegan for goodness’ sake.”

As PETA activations go, the trotting turkey is tame. The organization is known for in-your-face ads that have compared the American Kennel Club to the Ku Klux Klan and capitalized on the furor around Jeffrey Dahmer. PETA even touts them in a round-up of its “wackiest stunts.”

San Antonians should also be thankful that Travis Beaker didn’t decide to go more punk. In 2003, PETA volunteers gathered outside performances of The Nutcracker nationwide, brandishing pamphlets with graphic photos of carcasses and reading “Your mommy kills animals.”

Extreme tactics or not, it’s not a bad idea to work in at least a few plant-based meals into your weekly rotation. Our guide to San Antonio’s best vegan-friendly restaurants might give a tastier entry point than PETA’s roast.

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Unhappy holidays

Porch pirates poised to steal nearly $2B in packages from Texas homes

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The Grinch isn't the only one stealing Christmas these days.

’Tis the season for porch pirates. If past trends are an indicator, the Grinch will swipe close to $2 billion worth of packages delivered to Texas households this year, with many of those thefts happening ahead of the holiday season.

An analysis of FBI and survey data by ecommerce marketing company Omnisend shows porch pirates stole more than $1.8 billion worth of packages from Texans’ porches last year. Porch pirates hit nearly one-third of the state’s households in 2024, according to the analysis.

Omnisend’s analysis reveals these statistics about porch piracy in Texas:

30.1 million residential package thefts in 2024.
An average household loss of $169 per year.
An annual average of 2.9 package thefts per household.

“Most stolen items are cheap on their own, but add them up, and retailers and consumers are facing an enormous bill,” says Omnisend.

Another data analysis, this one from The Action Network sports betting platform, unwraps different figures regarding porch piracy in Texas.

The platform’s 2025 Porch Pirate Index ranks Texas as the state with the highest volume of residential thefts, based on 2023-24 FBI data.

Researchers at The Action Network uncovered 26,293 reports of personal property thefts at Texas residences during that period. The network’s survey data indicates 5 percent of Texas residents had a package stolen in the three months before the pre-holiday survey.

The Porch Pirate Index calculates a 25.8 percent risk of a Texas household being victimized by porch pirates, putting it in the No. 5 spot among states with the highest risk of porch piracy.

The Action Network included online-search volume for terms like “package stolen” and “porch pirates.” Sustained spikes in these searches suggest that “people are actively looking for guidance after something has happened. Search trends serve as an early warning system, revealing emerging-risk areas well before annual crime statistics are released,” the network says.

Tips to avoid being a victim
So, how do you prevent porch pirates from snatching packages that end up on your porch? Omnisend, The Action Network and Amazon offer these eight tips:

Closely monitor deliveries and quickly retrieve packages.
Schedule deliveries for times when you’ll be home.
Use delivery lockers or in-store pickup when possible.
Ask delivery services to hide packages in out-of-sight spots outside your home.
Install a visible doorbell camera or security camera.
Coordinate deliveries with neighbors or building managers if you’ll be away from your home when packages are supposed to arrive.
Request that delivery services hold your packages if you can’t be home when they’re scheduled to come.
Illuminate the path to your doorstep and keep porch lights on.

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