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Citizen complaint of the day: Well, at least we know where the package thieves of the South End are dumping their boxes
By adamg on Wed, 09/10/2014 - 8:00am
A concerned citizen reports:
Person stealing packages off doorsteps in the South End. Empty boxes found in Ringgold Park we're delivered to Dwight Street address. Another package discarded in the street nearby was from Hanson St. This type of petty theft appears to be in the rise in the neighborhood.
Neighborhoods:
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Comments
Both FedEx and UPS
are more willing to leave packages than leave notices than there were a year ago. I will be sure to reference this picture if I need to file a claim against a stolen package.
FedEx and UPS will only leave a notice
if the shipper requests a signature. Depending on the value of the item and/or the shipper's instructions, they usually require only a "soft" signature. That is, if you sign the notice and leave it on the door, FedEx/UPS will gladly leave the package the next time they come back.
The few times I've gotten notices where they will not leave the item despite my instructions to leave the package with my neighbor (I live in a two-unit condex, and my neighbor is home most of the day), I've found having to go to the UPS or FedEx distribution center to be a real PITA.
Didn't use to be that way.
In the past I've always had to be there to accept the package, sign a notice, or if I was lucky have a neighbor sign for it. Didn't matter if it was a $10 shirt or a $1500 laptop, if they didn't get a signature they didn't leave the package. At least with UPS. And I've made a few trips to the UPS office to pick up packages. I did write complaints about all the steps. And I am sure a few million (well maybe a few 10s of thousands) other people did - hence a change in procedure. Maybe it is YMMV depending on neighborhood. The change to leaving it on the steps in Beacon Hill has only been recent for UPS. Never got enough FedEx packages to really know.
Alternate Solution:
Rent a box with a local UPS Store like I do and have them sign for everything and hold it until your able to retrieve it. They even let me borrow a dolly if I'm not going far and that one nice gentleman loads my car (or my uber for me too!!)
I hope the concerned citizen
I hope the concerned citizen contacted the intended recipient of those packages as well...
Alternate Address
This is the very reason I have anything too large for my mailbox sent to my work address.
I'm lucky to have that option.
Have it Sent to Work
.. to avoid just this problem.
If you can...
I know some people who cannot have personal packages sent to their offices. After the whole USPS anthrax scare, my then-job tried to shut down personal package deliveries there. Lasted about a month....
Thank goodness it doesn't seem to be a problem in my current workplace. Makes it a lot easier for all of us.
One of the reasons I live in my condo is our front desk
They sign for our packages and then lock them in a room until we come and claim them. Then we have to sign a book verifying that we picked them up.
That's nice
For you.
My friends in the
My friends in the neighborhood have had more problems with packages getting stolen and break ins the past few months. It's crazy. I've noticed more really strung out looking individuals in the area, too. I saw a guy passed out in the middle of E. Springfield St around noontime a few months ago -- the EMTs responded very quickly fortunately! There are some buildings on the southbound side of Mass Ave near the Mass Ave T station that routinely have hypodermic syringes littering the front yard. It's really sad and I wouldn't be surprised if at least some of it is linked to drug abuse problems. .
Shop the old fashioned way...
..support your local businesses rather than sweatshops like amazon. Easy to avoid this sort of stuff...
Not quite .. There are
Not quite .. There are hundreds of thousands of things you could buy online that you could not purchase locally, and they could be handmade or one of a kind things that actually ARE supporting local shops that benefit greatly from shipping . Not eveerrrrything is big box companies fault . Hahha. Try again.
Easier said than done
I'll have my maid and nanny get right on it ... wait ... I don't have a maid or a nanny. Not all local businesses are open at convenient hours ... and not all brick and mortar businesses are local businesses anyway. Are there even any locally-owned electronics shops? Like, places to buy computers and cel phones that aren't hotter than a Galaxy 2?
I have been known to dispatch teens on errands to shop locally, though - but, again, not everyone has those handy people around and on call.
I do what I can to buy locally, particularly for gifts, but my local bike shop closes at 7 and isn't open on Sundays and didn't have the tires that I needed. The local butcher and green grocer are similarly limited in their hours. These are the limitations.
Right. Because I can walk into
my local 7-11 the next time I need some manufacturer-specific parts for my ham radio transmitter.
Roslindale has had this issue
Roslindale has had this issue too. Fed Ex and UPS used to be good about trying to hide the packages from view, but the USPS would have them out in broad daylight. I had to talk to the Post Office several times due to packages being stolen (my gates were always left open so that's how I knew someone came and took them, because who ever heard a a thief courteous to close the gate behind him?)
At least the shippers in these cases
made reasonable attempts to not disclose the exact contents contained in the boxes. I've stopped doing business with certain companies because their idea of adequate shipping is to slap an address label on the original box and send it that way.
Apart from increasing the likelihood of damage by not placing the item in an additional container, it's more than a bit disconcerting to have the contents of the package openly displayed when the item is left on your stoop.
And, while I normally have items shipped to my work address (for one thing - UPS adds a surcharge if you specify a residental address), that isn't always practical. Like with the time I ordered an air conditioner that was shipped in its original box - the only reason I wasn't too worried was because the thing was far too heavy for a "snatch and grap" person to carry it away.
PO Box
If you have a PO Box the Post Office will now accept packages (and give you a non-PO Box equivalent address for when shippers won't send to a box). The downside is that it sometimes takes them a day to sort the package and notify you and you have to go to the PO during business hours to pick it up. The upside is none of your packages end up at Ringgold Park.