Posted on 12/02/2019 11:55:40 AM PST by karpov
Online deliveries to an apartment building in northern Manhattan are left with a retired woman in 2H who watches over her neighbors’ packages to make sure nothing gets stolen.
Corporate mailrooms in New York and other cities are overwhelmed by employees shipping personal packages to work for safekeeping, leading companies to ban packages and issue warnings that boxes will be intercepted and returned to the senders.
A new start-up company is gambling that online shoppers who are worried about not getting their packages will be willing to pay extra to ship them to a home-based network of package receivers in Brooklyn.
With online shopping surging and another holiday season unfolding, customers’ mounting frustration and anger over stolen packages are driving many to take creative and even extreme measures to keep items out of the hands of thieves.
In New York City, where more orders are delivered than anywhere else in the country, over 90,000 packages a day are stolen or disappear without explanation, up roughly 20 percent from four years ago, according to an analysis conducted for The New York Times.
About 15 percent of all deliveries in urban areas fail to reach customers because of package theft and other less frequent issues, like deliveries to the wrong house, according to transportation experts.
In suburbs and rural areas, thieves often follow delivery trucks and snatch just-delivered packages from homes, often out of sight of neighbors.
Now online shoppers are turning to a variety of strategies to stymie thieves. Some are installing video doorbell cameras or, at the urging of postal workers, replacing outdated mailboxes from a bygone era of postcards and letters with models that can accommodate large packages.
Online retailers and shipping services, recognizing the scope of the problem, are trying to help customers.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
If a delivery goes wrong, usually USPS dropped the ball.
Fedex and UPS get it right.
Video - Man Exacts Revenge On Package Thieves With Trap That Fires Shotgun Blanks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv2h-csnlps
Former NASA engineer invents ‘glitter bomb’ to ward off porch pirates
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUaehcUjGZA
Who needs porch pirates? The USPS out in our neck of the woods is a nightmare, even with tracked mail. We're paying through the nose for FedEx and UPS now. And if a merchant won't use either, we don't patronize the merchant if we can't go and get it ourselves.
How to deal with porch pirates:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoxhDk-hwuo
Personally, I think 8 oz of C-4 would be more effective. It would guaran-damn-tee that that one would never do it again.
Pour encouragez les autres!
How did he get his cell phone back? I remember seeing a video of that but he took the package to his house.
“This is why Amazon created their delivery locker system “
I just discovered there’s an Amazon locker in a small drug store in a small town I visit twice a week. I think I’ll give it a try. Sounds like a good idea.
Yeah and he was a faker too.
I have had one (UPS store box) for more than twenty years—love it.
” Ii bet some ingenious methods could be employed like how to get rid of your garbage.”
It’s been done, Wrap the garbage like it is a present, and leave it on the subway.
Why not a ‘lock box’ to put on the property? Years ago we had mailboxes near the street... now we could have ‘Amazon boxes’ by our driveways.
I have room by my front door too if Amazon wants to sell me a box with cute electronics to set off an alarm, take a picture and notify the police if someone tries to force it open.
Wow. Because I live in a dumpy little town with no cultural attractions, I don’t get to ride the subway to the Metropolitan Opera House, or take a cab to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, etc. But I can leave a delivered package on my front porch for several days, while I’m gone, and it will still be there when I get back.
Of course, now that 2 or 3 pot dispensaries have opened up, in a town of 3600 people, that may change our idyllic little world. But I’m trusting the Lord it won’t come nigh us.
I wish that Amazon would partner with Walmart and put lockers in Walmarts, many of which are open 24 hours. Heck, Walmart could use them too for their ship-to-store items.
It would be a huge benefit for us rural folk. Now that mud season has arrived, UPS and Fedex won’t drive down our road again until summer. Assuming they can find us in the first place...
Actually, if the USPS wasn’t so darned bone-headed, they could make a killing on this. But they insist on renting a box whether you need it regularly or not, and they won’t allow UPS/Fedex to deliver to their facilities.
If there was just a box at the post office (which is already open in the PO Box area) into which I put a one-time use code and could retrieve my package, they would never have to drop packages at my house again - I’d be happy to come get them.
I knew it was a problem, but never imagined 1.7 million packages go missing in the US every day, and 90,000 in NYC alone per day. There's lots of folks out there stealing packages every day, at least several hundred thousand.
Answer the alert and you tell the perpetrator the police are on the way and you have a photo or video of them. I think there are other such systems. They still may grab and run, but can be a deterrent for thieves looking for a softer target.
Night time security is best with motion sensor floods/spots to your entryways, including side gates. We don't have floods, but little solar powered motion lights on all possible entries. Bought them some years ago through a catalog (Harriets?), and they still work. A little annoying when the Santa Ana winds are strong, but fair trade off. Of course, you need the Sun to charge. Home Depot and Lowes have many security options. Or just search for your specific needs. ADT is a long time leader in security systems.
This would be a great way to get rid of your cat litter.
Haha...was thinking same here...”great way to get rid of cat litter”
UPS and FedEx both have programs with the USPS to deliver packages to post offices, and then the USPS completes the delivery. I often get packages that way. One calls it Smart Post and I forget the other name, but they both do work with the USPS.
Smart Post: FedEx and USPS delivery program
Sure Post: UPS and USPS deliver program
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