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 Some are installing video doorbell cameras or, at the urging of postal workers, replacing outdated mailboxes from a bygone era of postcards and letters with models that can accommodate large packages.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 ...
“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.”
our local walmart already has an automated locker robot for stuff you buy online that is shipped to the store. it’s like a giant 25 foot tall automat that delivers your package to a portal when you type in your order number at the keypad ...
re: “Well get ready New Yorkers, Andy’s going to release even more criminals (at least 900 of them) to walk your streets.”
TOO BAD these criminal can’t be “chipped” such that when they approach a door or a gate a buzzer or alarm goes off ... commit a crime, get convicted by a duly constituted jury in a trial, GET A CHIP.
Awesome story.
“over 90,000 packages a day...” Yeah, right. No way.
NYT: creating facts out of thin air.
Package thefts are a national problem. The best solution is to send it to a retired neighbor.
I have a roadside mailbox at my house and USPS puts the UPS/FexEx packages in the mailbox, or leaves them on a porch if too large for the mailbox.
Have never asked if they hold such packages at the PO for those with boxes there, but it would seem they should since they deliver them out on the RFD routes.
So how is this bin secured to the ground?
They steal my central air unit with a cage in concrete footings over it. While it’s running I might add.
I live right by the Zoo and Rhodes College.
Seems to me a chain and a bumper drag the whole shebang right off your porch and down the street?
“They steal my central air unit with a cage in concrete footings over it. While it’s running I might add.”
And you still want to live there?
“Seems to me a chain and a bumper drag the whole shebang right off your porch and down the street?”
Build a brick housing around it.
Thanks for the idea. I can make one in my fab shop. Use duckbill anchors to make it permanent thru a poured slab. The lid can be open with a latching link rod passing thru to inside the house so once it’s closed you have to release it from inside the house. Much less than $700. Square 1” high grade steel tubing, welded. Fiberglass sides.
You gave me some really good ideas. At least I can do something productive out of it. When I’m done I’ll put a doghouse door front on it to make it a fake dog house.
Kinda my own oasis. Owls, hawks, eagles, and old growth forest tracts nearby.
a little bit like service merchendise
Wow! You’ll stump the thieves! I hope you build it.
I understand. Home is home!
“a little bit like Service Merchandise”
Wow! You ARE old! ;-)
older than dust!
or as they say on the downeast coast.
He is so old he fahts dust.
To me, this comment illustrates a large part of the problem; no punishment for the crime of theft. I realize that the arrests for this might be few & far between, but how about making a real public example of those who ARE caught? There are things that could be done to accomplish this. I believe this might be a deterrent to others thinking of committing the same thefts.
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