Has Amazon Delivery Service Made Thieves of Us All

Or

Finders Keepers/Losers Weepers?

Well, folks, the holiday season is over.  Did you get your gifts?  Or were they left on someone else’s doorstep?

It used to be easy to “steal” someone else’s package.  Left on your doorstep, hey, it’s yours, baby.  But now Amazon has grown smarter.  It has its delivery people take a photo of exactly on which door the package has landed.

Does that matter?  After the complaints and the pleadings on all these neighborhood sites, it obviously doesn’t matter at all.  There seems to be no shame in taking in that little—or big—orphaned package and claiming it as your own.

I have been a victim of such swiping myself.  Fortunately, nothing of real value, and I was reimbursed.  But I got a notice that my package was delivered.  I looked at the photo and realized that wasn’t my door.

Taking a peek out my bedroom window, I could clearly see my package sitting right in front of the neighbor’s door.  Did they even toss it over onto my lawn.  No, they brazenly took it in, and I never saw it again.

Now you would think a normal person with normal neighbors would just go over and ask for the package and there would be smiles and, yeah, I was meaning to drop it by.  Well, I’m a normal person.  My neighbors aren’t. The wife should be on medication for psychosis and the husband is just what is known in the trade as a creep.  So letting them have that package is a small price to pay for my mental well-being.

Now, I have had things delivered to my door that don’t belong to me.  Once it was, believe it or not, ice cream.  Who the hell mail-orders ice cream?  Well, neighbors four houses east of me.  I thought, oh my god, what am I going to do with this?  I wrote a note, went to the house, and left it on their door.  The man came after work and collected his ice cream.  Was it melted by then?  I have no idea.

The postal service.  What can one say.  They do their best.  And yet—  With the wrong deliveries there, I make a trip to the post office and drop it in the slot, hoping the next time they get it right.  Believe it or not, sometimes it’s just redelivered to me.

But let’s get back to the thieving part of this.  Everyone loves something for free.  So I can see how tempting it is to take in a package that doesn’t belong to you.  And you know what, it’s legal.  It’s not your fault that it was dropped at your door.  It’s like a cashier making a mistake.  Why correct them if it’s to your benefit?  And if it’s not to your benefit, you usually don’t notice until you get home and check the bill, because it’s so easy to just swipe your card without even looking at the price you’re paying.

I guess in a way, we’re all petty criminals about something.  It’s just human nature to get something for nothing and loving it.

But as a result of all this misdirection, I hesitate to buy from Amazon because, well, what if it ends up once again with the neighbors; and gee, I don’t even really know their tastes?