‘I need it to live’: Bridgewater woman with rare genetic disorder has formula swiped off front porch

BRIDGEWATER, Mass. — A Bridgewater woman says a package thief who stole boxes from her front porch took a month’s supply of formula.

But the formula wasn’t for a baby, it was for her.

Alyssa Augusto has a rare genetic metabolic disorder and that formula is her main source of nutrition.

“I went to the room and told my husband, someone just stole my formula off the front porch, and he was like...what?” Augusto said. “He had an empty Amazon box, so almost as if he was faking that he was a delivery person.”

Augusto says she was shocked when she got the alert from her doorbell camera to her phone. The man dropped the empty box, picked up the two boxes of formula, and took off.

Those boxes contained a special formula that essentially keep Alyssa alive.

“I have Phenylketonyria or PKU. It’s a rare, inherited, genetic metabolic disorder,” Augusto said.

The disorder means Alyssa can only consume a limited amount of protein. The formula is her main source of nutrition.

Bridgewater woman with rare genetic disorder has formula swiped off front porch (Alyssa Augusto)

“The sad part is, he’s gonna open the box and he’s not even going to know what it is. You can’t find this formula in the store,” she said. “And it’s not like he can even sell it because the condition I have is so rare...it’s just going to end up in the trash.”

Alyssa says she has enough formula to get by until she can call her doctor on Monday.

She needs the formula to nourish herself and the six-week-old daughter she’s nursing.

“Not only did this person jeopardize my health, he jeopardized the health of my six-week-old daughter,” Augusto said.

The empty Amazon box was addressed to someone who lives less than a mile from Alyssa. She says she contacted that person and they too had boxes stolen from their porch.

Bridgewater Police confirm they’re investigating the incident.