A Calgary family discovered ‘tis the season for opportunistic thieves as their shipment of Amazon parcels spent mere minutes on their porch before landing in the hands of a sticky fingered bandit.
Deanna Brousseau was changing her nine-month-old son Gray on Wednesday morning when she heard someone at the front door of her home in the northeast neighbourhood of Coventry Hills. Brousseau says she was expecting a shipment from Amazon and heard what she thought was a delivery person leaving packages at her door. After changing Gray, she went outside and found nothing.
“I was so confused and I was actually looking for a notice from UPS or something,” said Brousseau. “I kind of just stared at my porch for a second.”
“I thought okay, this is weird, let me double check my video cameras that I have.”
The recording confirmed the packages had been delivered at 10:36 by a Canada Post employee but an unknown man arrived minutes later, at 10:46, and swiped all of the boxes and envelopes.
“My heart just sunk,” said Brousseau. “I felt scared. I felt violated because I don’t know if this man was watching my house or if he was just following the delivery truck.”
Brousseau says the majority of the items were Christmas gifts but the thief also stole safety plugs for babyproofing electrical outlets. She reported the theft to police and reached out to her community Facebook page where she discovered others were also missing packages and Christmas cards.
“Fortunately, we contacted Amazon and because we’re Prime members they are going to actually ship those products back to us free-of-charge,” said Brousseau. “There are options to have your parcels shipped to a pick-up location. We’re going to start doing that now.”
Canada Post officials recommend customers take proactive measures to reduce the risk of theft.
“If the customer is concerned about potential theft they should look into what shipping options are available,” said Phil Legault, Canada Post spokesperson. “For some items, like household goods, they may want the item left in a safe location on the porch. For other more valuable or temperature-sensitive items they should choose options that require a signature and will end up at the post office if not delivered.
“If a customer feels their parcel is lost or possibly stolen, they contact Canada Post's contact Customer Service (1-800-267-1177) so that we can look into it and potentially work with the sender. The customer should also contact the sender to begin their claim for a refund or have the parcel sent to them again.”
Acting Sgt. Andrew Critchley of the CPS Crime Prevention Team says acquisitive crimes, crimes of opportunity, are more common at this time of year. He encourages members of the public to report suspicious activity.
“If you see somebody acting suspiciously and you believe a crime is being committed, please utilize 911,” said Critchley. “If you don’t quite have the reasoning to believe a crime is being committed, however you see somebody acting suspiciously, you can call 403-266-1234.”
As Brosseau continues to await her replacement shipment, she has a message for the person who took her packages.
“For that individual who came yesterday and took my packages, I’m really sorry that you’re in the situation that you feel like you need to steal,” said Brosseau. “Hopefully he learned his lesson somehow.”
