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 Some are installing video doorbell cameras or, at the urging of postal workers, replacing outdated mailboxes from a bygone era of postcards and letters with models that can accommodate large packages.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 ...
This is why Amazon created their delivery locker system due to this very issue. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see companies in New York City create large centers filled with delivery lockers specifically to cater to online buyers.
I lived in NYC for 20 years and to this day I’m absolutely flabbergasted I never had a package stolen, especially when I lived in walk-ups. Packages are left in plain view inside lobby doors all the time and it’s very easy to get in those buildings. Cops are never looking for this type of crime, and there’s zero punishment even if you’re caught.
I’m sorry, but we are going to have to start hanging thieves.
There are too many of them and they aren’t afraid of having to go to jail.
Yeah they’re trying to attract more illegals: aliens,citizens, and other parasites to steal more of our stuff(Like the government already does through taxes)
We need bigger lock boxes that are not post office types. Then there’s the Amazon storage lockers. There’s room for late night storage places(attended) that can hold ones package. Perhaps the convenience stores. Doable.
I really find it hard to believe 90k packages every day in NYC disappear.
What could possible go wrong? I’d like to hear when the first package sitter is sued. The nice lady in 2H should get a lawyer and get bonded.
I’ve kept a UPS Store mailbox for years.
Cheap security and no complaints.
Looks like an opportunity for retrobution in the form of ‘packages’ that aren’t what they seem to be may not stop all but it’ll give pause to some. Ii bet some ingenious methods could be employed like how to get rid of your garbage.
Every week we empty the cat litter into a nice UPS labeled box and leave it on the front porch. It helps. It's always taken within 24 hours.
My friends sell on Ebay too. The stories they tell. The biggest reason why the package gets “lost” is because the mail box is too small for the package, hence the mailman leaves it at the door. Buyers cant leave a negative feedback because the package “arrived” .
Amazon solved the problem with the LOCKER but there are people who dont want to go to 7-11, like the ones we have here in Hollywood. Too many obama kids, homeless and morons around...
They should fix this problem the San Francisco way - just decriminalize it, and then there is no such thing as stolen packages - and reported crime rates drop.
Besides, its probably racist to arrest people that steal packages.
There was a guy who filled dummy packages with glitter bombs and cell phones to record the thieves surprise as they opened the packages. He put the videos on YouTube.
Lots of mentions of UPS and FedEx.
Not a single mention of the USPS.
I never had any package go missing until Amazon started using the US Postal Service. Now about once every couple months I get a notice saying my package was left in my mailbox.
Only problem: my building doesn’t have a mailbox.
I call Amazon and they don’t even argue; they just send a new one of whatever I ordered.
Once you have destroyed societal trust, you never get it back.
GPS-based ‘bait’ packages are used to get some of these cretins off the street ...
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