Unfortunately package theft is common. Our neighborhood suffered several thefts and eventually the police put fake packages with GPS trackers into the delivery boxes then waited to see where they went. They ended up in the house of the person who delivered the newspaper..

Happens here in London, UK. Amazon like to leave packages on my doorstep. Stolen every single time. To fix this they appear to have left instructions to "sling it over the back fence" or "jam it in the letterbox and destroy it".

Best note through the letterbox so far: "Package is in the recycling bin".

I'm taking it that the friendly postal person knew it wasn't one of the 'every other Wednesdays'.

That seems rather risky. I see lots of people rummaging through recycling cans on the street for the recycling value of the cans and bottles. Or someone could just throw a big gross thing on top of it.

I was amazed to learn that the USPS leaves packages on the door step, always. I mean this was a surprise to me because I grew up in the UK where said package would be stolen in short order, and then for the past 20 years living in the US I was in either apartments where there is no doorstep, or out in the wilds where the postman doesn't come within a few miles of your doorstep. I'd never been in a situation where the post office were able to leave a package on my stoop. But now we have an office location in town with a bone fide door step, right on a busy street and they leave packages in plain sight. When I expressed surprise I was told this is standard procedure for the USPS everywhere. I have a security camera pointed at the door step and so far no thief has stepped forward to have their picture taken...

This reminds me of a segment on Top Gear (the BBC TV show for those unaware) in which Jeremy Clarkson is lamenting that having a pickup truck in the UK would result in your belongings in the bed being stolen when stopped.

For what it's worth, I have ordered many online items (100+) over the last several years, and every one has been left on my doorstep by USPS or UPS. The only time I have had a package stolen was during a summer I spent in a notably dangerous area. The rest of the orders were safely delivered, in my case to a college-town apartment or a suburban family home.

Fair enough, but counterpoint: I live in a vintage building on a busy street, and the USPS carriers never leave packages on our doorstep. Each apartment has put up a little sign on their front door indicating how they'd prefer packages left (on the stairs, out back, whatever), which the postal workers all adhere to.

I see them walking past my window, from the front of the building to the back, all the time.

So they must have some flexibility...

I got dire warnings from my neighbor when I bought my house that package thieves were on the loose (along with warnings about coyotes and heroin addicts). So far the packages have been fine and I haven't seen any coyotes or heroin addicts either, so hopefully my run of good luck continues.

We have package theft and coyotes. So two of out three ain't bad..

I mean I'm sure all that stuff is going on somewhere, but, irrational as it may be, as long as I personally haven't encountered it I don't feel compelled to take any particular countermeasures.

I would never allow them to leave my package at neighbors house and if they do I would write a note to the support. This is my package and I want it delivered to me. I can't understand what is the problem of rescheduling the delivery for the time that suits me the best. Or scheduling the best time in the first place. Why Japan can do this? Even Japanese Post (not only a courier) allows you to define when you'd like to get your delivery and they deliver even at 21:00. Why other countries can't follow is beyond me.

For most people, it's more convenient to go to their neighbour and collect the package right away than it is to try and reschedule a delivery for some other time.

Most people don't have hostile neighbours.

The bigger and more dense the city, the more hostile and private the neighbors.

I take packages for all my 10 neighbors, they are happy with it, but we live in a civilised city and all our delivery drivers are extremely competent and nice

I have never noticed this in my life. Center City is where neighbors know each other and actually help each other out. The suburbs have always been hostile and anonymous.

I went to college in Minneapolis and I knew all my neighbors and most of the homeless people. When I visit my friends in the suburbs they have no idea who their neighbors are unless there is open hostility. Look at Senator Paul.

I just notice that their is a HUGE bias to bash cities all the time. When you live in a city you actually get to know and live with a wide diversity of people, hence the normal more liberal bias. My father inlaw almost dies inside anytime he visits us and can't ever say anything positive about the city (They live in the country in West Virginia and he is a successful contractor). He thinks everyone is on drugs and lives off of $45,000 for the Government. No one knows how much the working poor works these days and West Virginia's drug problem is 10x that of my city. It's just a anti-city bias.

Wow, yea, some of these responses are crazy! If I had those neighbors I'd GTFO and move to a sane neighborhood. Next time someone accuses me of being a NIMBY because I don't want low cost crack housing built next door to me I'm going to remember this thread.

Sounds great, I'm not being sarcastic, it really does, I'm somewhat sick of the 'big city' bs.

You ever hear Merle Haggard's "Big City"? It's a classic and the story behind its composition is almost too good to be true. The story goes, he was on tour and his bus driver just lost it at some point and said "I'm tired of this dirty old city! As far as I'm concerned, I'd rather be somewhere in the middle of Montana!" and Merle Haggard was struck with inspiration and wrote the whole song (of which the thing about the dirty old city and Montana is a motif) almost on the spot. Then he supposedly shared the songwriting royalties with the bus driver.

"The song was inspired by a remark by Dean Holloway, Haggard's lifelong friend and tour bus driver. At the end of a packed two-day recording session at Britannia Studios in Los Angeles, Haggard went to the bus to check on Holloway, who had been minding the bus, and asked him how he was doing. Holloway responded, "I hate this place. I'm tired of this dirty old city." Haggard immediately saw inspiration, and began writing the song, based on Holloway's remark, on a nearby pad of paper. "I'm tired of this dirty old city" became the song's first line. Haggard decided that the chorus should include the narrator talking about moving elsewhere, and asked Holloway where he would rather be, to which Holloway responded, "If it were up to me, it'd be somewhere in the middle of damn Montana." "Somewhere in the middle of Montana" became part of the chorus. Haggard rushed back into the studio, where the band was packing up, and told them to unpack their instruments in order to record one last song; the band recorded the song in one take, with no rehearsal.

Haggard credited Holloway as a co-writer, entitling him to half the royalties for the song, which amounted to around half a million dollars for Holloway."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_City_(Merle_Haggard_song)

I did pretty well for reciting it from memory.

Agreed!

When I was a student I lived in a large student apartment building. Packages were regularly delivered to whoever was walking into the door at that moment or the first doorbell to answer, if the intended recipient was not home.

Then the person who got the package posted on an internal facebook page: "I've got a package for 304 in 605" and they would be collected.

The system worked perfectly and there were a lot of packages, I guess many potentially worth a lot.

Most neighbours round me are also out during the day.

The only 24/7 occupied house is across the road, and it's the local drug-dealing hangout, so that's a nope as they'll either fence the package or try to snort or inject it.

Most of the transient 'residents' wouldn't remember the day of the week, let alone whether they had been gifted a package.

No you have to Opt In. You write a note to leave the package at my neighbor. That is the best option for people living in cities without an Amazon Locker. My grocery store has a UPS locker system for pickup but they don't allow you to send your Amazon packages there.

I suspect this is a combination of delivery services being simultaneously an oligopoly and heavily unionized. The combination of little competition and high wages makes it difficult to justify going the extra mile.

For what it's worth I know at least UPS has a premium service where you can schedule your delivery to a specific time during the day.

The thing is, in Japan it's nothing special. Even post office would do it. More, if you wish they would lleave the package in nearest combini so you can collect on the way back from work. Combini is a convenient store available almost on every corner. It's just their customer service is on a different level. Keeping good reputation is important for them, event if sometimes cost a little bit more.

My biggest beef is that I can't seem to get UPS/Fedex/USPS to just open my front porch door and leave my packages inside anymore. My philosophy is to generally never lock anything if I can help it; if somebody wants to get in and steal my (largely worthless) stuff, all a lock is going to do is mean they kick down my door and then I have to replace the stuff AND the door.

So instead I end up with packages left out in the rain, or slung in the snowbank during a blizzard that I don't find until spring comes...

I can’t remember the last time I’ve signed for a UPS package. When we had a regular driver, back when I was racing bikes, he once said “you’re supposed to sign for this ($10 package), but I’ve dropped thousands of dollars worth of bike parts on your doorstep and you haven’t complained yet.” True, in seventeen years we’ve never had a package stolen from our doorstep here in Redmond, WA.

That said, I work from home on iPhone delivery day. Were I a thief, that would be just way too easy, knowing the day of delivery and an approximation of what the package looks like.

Does no one sign up for UPS My Choice? Very handy. I have them leave packages at the UPS store down the street from me pretty frequently, pre-sign, etc. They do all of the things they don't for you.

I think home package drop off vaults are going to grow in popularity. Getting one at my office to handle late package deliveries was really useful.