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What Is The Wipro Package?

My neighbor probably stole a package from us. What to do?

  • My partner ordered an item through the US Postal Service. He received an immediate text when it was delivered yesterday, but when he stepped outside to get it there was nothing there. He reported this to the post office right away and they returned the call this afternoon, saying that the carrier had given the package to "the next-door neighbor" who had claimed that he was authorized by us to receive packages. We never said anything like this to him -- he's the last neighbor we would ever trust to take packages for us. We actually have the voice mail message from the post office rep which acknowledges that the carrier had given a neighbor the package without any sort of verification beyond the neighbor's word. When my partner went to ask the neighbor about everything (after getting off the phone with the Postal Service rep), the neighbor said that he had seen the postal worker toss the package over the fence onto the porch and that he had told her to be more careful with the package. He said that the package had landed on the porch. My partner, our friend and I all looked on and around the porch and it was nowhere to be seen. Partner and I left home for a few hours, and when we got back about an hour ago he went downstairs to check again. Surprise, surprise, there was the package right where the neighbor had told us it had been. He brought it upstairs and opened the (exterior mailing) package. The item itself had been opened (the hard plastic packaging had been cut) although the contents were all there. It's not a particularly interesting or valuable item (probably $20 retail at the most) but the thing that makes us anxious is that the person who opened the package had no idea what was in there -- it could have been something much more important. Once we realized the mail had not only been taken & returned but also tampered with, we decided to call the police. Because it had been actually opened, they referred us to the US Postal Inspection Service. They don't open until the morning, so we're trying to figure out what to do. Option 1: Do nothing. We don't want to start a Big Thing over such a minor item, particularly as mail tampering could conceivably send someone to federal prison. And the postal worker could lose her job. Not to mention that this person IS our next-door neighbor and we are going to be living next to him for at least a while. Option 2: Talk to him directly. In an ideal world, he would admit that he took it, apologize and get the message not to be doing shady things like this. Yay neighborliness. Option 3: Call in the authorities and let the chips fall where they may. Like I said, we don't want this to be a bigger deal than it has to be, but we're also aware that something more valuable could be taken in future (or may already have been from another neighbor). Your advice?

  • Answer:

    Oh man, fuck this guy. I totally get not wanting to make this a huge thing, but there were so many fuckups here. Instead of thinking of it like "my $20 item was messed with a little bit," think "what if I had an asthmatic child and this was an emergency replacement nebulizer for the one that broke last night," or "what if my grandmother lived here and this douchecanoe opened her diapers, she'd be mortified and would cry for days." It's not just you. If this guy stole your package, he'd steal anyone's. I don't want the mail carrier to get fired, either, but the mail carrier absolutely did the wrong thing here. The USPS needs to follow whatever bureaucratic formal process they have for making sure that error doesn't happen again, on this route or any of the carrier's future routes. And this guy, this fucking guy, he needs to get in trouble. If there's no follow up with this he's going to keep doing it and keep doing it. Maybe not to you, but to someone else. Other people are going to have their packages disappear because this guy sucks. I'd wager large sums today wasn't his first time. So I'd say go with option 3. Maybe add a shake of option 2, maybe not. Personally this kind of crime aggravates the piss out of me, because it's one of those things that just shows complete contempt for other people. There is no way in hell I'd let this slide.

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I would not willingly start a war with a neighbour who was willing to steal my stuff and lie about it straight to my face. He's not going to get arrested over a $20 package most likely, even if it was mail tampering, and then you'll have to live next to someone who is not just a criminal, but a really pissed off criminal. You could try asking the post office to note your address as not one where neighbour/porch deliveries are permitted and posting a sign to that effect, but if you regularly get packages of higher values than this one, consider having them sent to a mailbox service or a UPS store that will accept them on your behalf.

jacquilynne

Personally, I'd report it to / work with the Postal Inspectors, giving them the factual details of what happened. If they pursue it (seems unlikely but who knows) and the neighbor says anything to you, lay it all on the USPS. Just say "oh, well yeah we had to report it when it was missing, they must have followed up, I dunno..." smile, shrug, walk away. Complete candor is not required when dealing with scumbags. N.B.: from what I understand of how the Postal Inspection Service works, just because they're involved doesn't mean it's casting aspersions on your mail carrier. USPIS is Federal law enforcement and they pursue mail theft / tampering in general, as well as a host of other mail-related crimes; they are not the USPS version of Internal Affairs or something. So it's unsurprising that the local police referred you to them; that's completely within their purview. Mail theft is different from stealing UPS packages, analogous to the same way that robbing a bank is different from robbing a convenience store.

Kadin2048

Play dumb, but report it to postal inspector. You have to pursue this, it is a serious crime. Sorry this happened.

jbenben

I would not confront the neighbor directly. You are not going to get an admission or an apology out of him. He has no compunction about stealing mail, which everyone in the US knows is a huge deal and a Federal crime, and he has even less compunction about lying to your face. A person like you would admit/apologize so it would be reasonable to confront a person like you, but then again, a person like you would not do this in the first place. So don't hold him to the normal-person standards to which you hold yourself, hold him to criminal creep liar standards and keep a wide berth. If you do go with option 3, I'd be crystal-clear that you yourself thoroughly inspected all surrounding areas and the package was NOT left. Be sure to report that you are 100% confident the carrier delivered the package to the neighbor in good faith. If you are clear about that every step of the way, your carrier won't get fired for delivering to a neighbor who claimed to know you. Make it clear that they have to keep their eye out for the neighbor, basically. It's a little odd to me that the police referred you to Postal. Did they think your beef was with your mail carrier? To me it seems pretty clear your beef was with your neighbor.

kapers

Update: Thanks for your input, everyone! We did decide to proceed with a formal request for investigation through the US Postal Inspector Service. As was noted above, this neighbor very well may have been doing this to other neighbors for some time -- it's pretty brazen that he actually took the package within a few minutes of it being delivered (literally in the time it took Partner to get up and walk down the stairs), in broad daylight. The rep was great and assured us that they will be speaking to the local postal office and will be checking in with other neighbors to see if there have been other mail theft issues, and we have a tracking number so we can check in on the status of our complaint.

tivalasvegas

Because we have a USPS package deliverer (different from our usual mail carrier) who thought it was totally fine to leave boxes on our ungated, very urban stoop (because WHAT), we have a sign on our door that says to not leave packages on the stoop, and that only people at [next door address] are authorized to accept if there is no answer at our door. We have not had a package left on the stoop since, and as far as I can tell, nothing has gone astray.

rtha

SketchyNeighbor: *sweats bullets* You have such hope for humanity.

salvia

He got caught. He knows it and you know it. Consider whether this in itself may be enough to discourage these shenanigans in the future. Consider that allowing him to save face while everyone knows he is really guilty may be the best way to go. The police probably aren't actually going to do anything serious, and it'll turn into a "he said, she said." Definitely inform the post office not to do this again. Put up a sign, it can't hurt. If you have an apartment front desk, see if they will deliver things there. You might also consider a security camera.

quincunx

Start a war? What's he going to do, start stealing your packages? Report it to the postal inspectors. Maybe he's got a hundred complaints already. Maybe nothing will happen to him, but he'll know in the future he's got a report logged already so he'd better not do it again. The mail person isn't going to get fired. She might get cautioned (unless she has a hundred complaints already.)

ctmf

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