HCSO Warns of UPS and FedEx Packages Being Stolen

This is a press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

HCSOThe Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office recently received reports of a vehicle following UPS and FedEx trucks and stealing packages from houses after delivery. There is not a description of the vehicle nor suspects at this time.

Here are a few ways to prevent your packages from being stolen:

• Make sure to require a signature on all package deliveries
• Write specific instructions for the delivery company on where to leave your package
• Re-route packages to your local mail office
• And you can always have your packages delivered to you at work

Anyone with information for the Sheriff’s Office regarding related criminal activity is encouraged to call the Sheriff’s Office at 707-445-7251 or the Sheriff’s Office Crime Tip line at 707-268-2539.

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FC
Guest
FC
8 years ago

The same sort of thing was reported last year by some folks. The rumor through the grapevine was of two middle schoolers getting caught, having used a bicycle trailer, dumping empty boxes on the Hammond Trail… but they got off with a verbal warning. As one of the theft victims, I never heard anything from the sheriff’s office about it though. And no newspaper reported on the thefts that I saw, I guess because there wasn’t a press release.

Tom in Eureka
Guest
Tom in Eureka
8 years ago

Right. Here’s the reality: UPS is delivering without getting a signature. Seen it. Packages cannot be “delivered at work” unless you are in charge. No boss will allow that at most businesses. How can you “re-route packages to local post office?” Never heard of that. You can have UPS and FedEx held at THEIR facilities.

Who writes this nonsense anyway?

nines
Guest
8 years ago
Reply to  Tom in Eureka

UPS and FedEx only get signatures on packages where it was requested by the sender. And UPS already DOES reroute them to the post office, at least for box holders, when they are under a certain weight and the driver has too much to deliver on a given day, even if you don’t request that, but for sure if you DO request that… probably also for regular mail routes and people just don’t notice the PO delivered it instead of UPS.

FC
Guest
FC
8 years ago
Reply to  nines

In the past, Amazon hasn’t let me ship to a PO box, insisting on a street address because of their chosen carriers not delivering to PO boxes (e.g., UPS). If you don’t have Prime, maybe they let you use USPS.

UPS and FedEx signature confirmation costs more because the company sending the item to you gets charged more to add that service.

Your information about UPS rerouting to a post office is completely wrong. They NEVER do this for the reasons cited.

UPS only hands a package over to the Postal Service if you’ve prearranged the situation, or it’s being delivered to a PO Box, or when the company paying UPS has chosen a service called UPS Surepost (or for FedEx, it’s called FedEx SmartPost). This is a slower discounted service where UPS or FedEx deliver a package to a Postal Service hub, and at that point it is delivered as if it was a Postal Service package. It usually involves adding a delay of 1 business day to the delivery time.

Both companies are trying to reduce their deliveries to residential addresses, and may eventually increase fees to do residential delivery. The Postal Service offers this service to UPS & FedEx because they’ll have a postal employee on your street six days a week anyway.

If you’re lucky, when you’ve ordered 2 packages, one coming via regular UPS delivery and one coming via UPS Surepost… and the home delivery is scheduled for the same day as your Surepost package is being handed over to USPS, then UPS will instead deliver both to your door. You’ll see this noted on your UPS.com delivery tracking page.

Liz
Guest
Liz
8 years ago
Reply to  FC

“Your information about UPS rerouting to a post office is completely wrong. They NEVER do this for the reasons cited.”

Well, yes they do. They have a contract agreement that allows packages with a rural address to be delivered to the post office.

AccordGal
Guest
AccordGal
8 years ago
Reply to  Tom in Eureka

It never hurts to ask your supervisor. I’ve had 90% of my packages delivered to my workplaces for the last 20 years……

FC
Guest
FC
8 years ago
Reply to  AccordGal

I had a package delivered to me at work once. It was quite a hassle of smoke and mirrors.

All packages go to the purchasing department, and they track everything. They want to know why a package from X is being delivered to your department when there wasn’t a purchase order for it.

Instead of implying that you bought a personal item and had it delivered to your office, it implies your office has gone rogue making its own purchases instead of having the purchasing department decide what to buy, or where to buy the item you specified.

THC
Guest
THC
8 years ago
Reply to  Tom in Eureka

Tom, you can go to your p.o. office and sign a form that gives them permission to receive your packages,then all you need is their physical address along with your box numbet nd send your package there. I recently found out about this at the Redway post office ( thank Tiv) apparently they have offered this service for a few years but nobody knows about it.

Eric
Guest
Eric
8 years ago
Reply to  Tom in Eureka

Small businesses (like ours) don’t mind our employees having packages dropped at work…way better than ups/fedex/usps running all over rural Humboldt Cnty.

Anna
Guest
Anna
8 years ago

UPS and Fed-Ex often “re-routes” packages to the local post office for us, because the post office is easier than driving all the way out to our house in Whitethorn. The only way the post office will accept the package for delivery that way is if you list your physical address (in case they actually want to deliver it to your house) followed by your PO Box (otherwise the post office will return it).

Garlic Breath
Guest
Garlic Breath
8 years ago

I tried to put in a blanket order to have all packages held for pick up with both the UPS and FedEx. Apparently, that’s not an option.

MrMagoo
Guest
MrMagoo
8 years ago

two years ago at Christmastime I had twp packages stolen from my porch. Too bad the stupid thieving beoatch didn’t know she was glaring right into my security cam. I posted the vid with channel 3 and they played it as a warning about “This can happen to you”… I burned a copy of it on a dvd and gave it to the EPD. Two days later Tim Cooper ID’D the skank, and within two hours her mother returned the books that were among the stolen items, and the “house manager” at the (get this) recovery home where her mom was staying paid for my loss. A few days later she was busted in Trinidad with a couple of thugs with a car full of dope. She ‘revolved’ out of that jam, but was later caught in Omaha, where I hope she’s doin’ a slick 15!

G-ma
Guest
G-ma
8 years ago

Give them a time when your home and they’ll be their at that time!!

CA Barbie
Guest
CA Barbie
8 years ago
Reply to  G-ma

No – they won’t be there when you’re home. Each truck holds hundreds of packages destined for hundreds of addresses and they’re packed in a particular order that optimizes the routing. No driver has the time to suddenly stop delivering packages as fast he or she can, make a U-turn, and stop by *your* house at a particular time.

Best plan: Leave a note on the door that says, “Please deliver packages across (or down) the street at [some address]” where someone is home that day. Drivers *will* do that if all they have to do is trot across the street or run next door.