Community Chat

[kivah]

@CalminHeart

Years ago they rang the doorbell. I'm home most of the time -- do I have to check my front porch every 15 minutes? Sometimes they deliver my packages at 8PM. It would be stolen if it were out there 5 minutes. 

[sfnative]

@Jasmine19

We're in the same position as you: large city with a high theft rate from porches, door fronts, etc. 

One of our neighbors spotted a UPS truck driving slowly down the street looking for addresses and making stops here and there.  Thing was, he was followed by 2 teenaged boys on bikes with big backpacks and saddlebags on their bikes.  They would stop about 30' behind the UPS truck, wait for the driver to leave the package or packages, drive on, then one of them would scamper up and steal the packages that would fit in their gear.  In the meantime, the 2nd kid would follow the UPS truck and watch where he was delivering, while his buddy caught up with him, and so on.

As our neighbor saw this occurring, he grabbed his cell phone and called the police.  He was fortunate to receive a response, as we are down more than 200 police officers in our city.  The teenagers were caught.  Yea!

Speaking to the "drop and go" practice by many delivery companies, I received an interesting piece of information during a luncheon with friends early last week.  One of the ladies at the luncheon has a friend whose son now delivers for Amazon.  He told his Mom that due to the number of packages he is given to deliver within a specific amount of time, he often speeds through red lights (we have noticed a distinct uptake in running red lights in our city); simply drops the box or package on the door step, without ringing the doorbell or knocking on the door, because he has no time to do so; and, racing back to his car so he can speed away to his next destination.

My husband and I have noticed a great deal of speeding through red lights and just general speeding in the last 3 or so months and were wondering what the heck was up.  Now we're wondering if it's due to a preponderance of delivery persons in their own cars hired out by Amazon and the like. 

Whatever it is, it's dangerous (we were inches from being T-boned last week) and the cause of much doorstep theft, that's for sure.

[CalminHeart]

If you go to UPS.com and sign up for My Choice (free) .......

1. You can set it up to receive notice of the timeframe the package should be delivered.

2. You can designate where you want your packages delivered.  Mine are always put outside my back door on the deck.  

3. You can set a notification so you are informed when a package is delivered.