What do you expect the police to do in this situation? They can't just walk into people's homes over your word. OP at least had a noise which in the states I assume is probable cause or something. And even then they'd have to come back with a warrant but got the headphones because the suspect felt defeated.
Your situation is bizarre, the helpless feeling of knowing where your stolen item is and not be able to do anything about it. But it's not solvable by the police unless you have more evidence. For example you could have recorded your neighbor saying those things to you.
Here in Sweden petty theft is 99% an insurance issue. I even heard one case where their boat was stolen with an airtag on it and it was traced to a particular driveway.
The police here won't even pick up the case, it goes into a pile of other theft cases and the owner can use the ID to file an insurance claim.
It's very sad on the surface. But maybe they have their reasons.
What more evidence do you need?
Here I always opt for delivery at a pick up location and use my electronic ID to pick it up so I had never expected delivery drivers to take, and store, photos of people.
"Your parcel is on the way."
"Your parcel is being used as a football by the warehouse staff."
"Your parcel is in Antarctica."
"Your parcel has somehow been delivered to your roof."
The delivery person gave me the box then ran back to me as I was walking away. "I have to take a photo to prove I delivered it." He puts it down on the ground and photographs it. Not sure what a picture of a box on a nondescript driveway would prove, but I guess he had to do it.
I'm not sure that's the case - the UK police are rigorously judged on the amount of cases they solve. If it was a slam dunk they would have done it.
Office I was kidnapped, taken to this address and violently raped. "Sorry we just walk in to people's homes over your word" ? Half a dozen other scenarios come to mind.
So they can't just walk in over your word. I has to be your word plus either a warrant or exigent circumstance.
Like what reasons? It's somewhat understandable that police might not want to investigate theft of relatively cheap item because they have to prioritize. But a stolen boat? At the very least it warrants some further investigation. Them dismissing it outright just seems bizarre since they do have some evidence they at least should come and talk to the owner.
Isn’t a signal that is within a few feet of the door you want to enter good enough? It’s more authenticate than some random noise - you know it’s your device and not some random device emitting find my data.
Sounds like policing or judicial approach is outdated. If a police officer sees the stolen goods inside via a window, they can enter right? How are RF waves that they can see coming inside the property, and uniquely identify the property, any different?
Basically evidence.
If the police can't take evidence and solve a crime then fuck 'em.
BTW, I've been at the opposite end, also in UK. I was wrongly accused of picking up someone's Amazon package, the police got involved, they showed up at my door and said something like "could you check again in your apartment if you maybe by mistake have picked up the package".
I suggested to the police to investigate the common areas cameras in the building to see who the Amazon delivery person left the package with, but I don't think they bothered since it probably involves a search warrant.
And that was it, nothing happened. Amazon eventually reimbursed the other person and ate the loss.
Paperwork exists for a reason.
In my view at fault in these cases is the delivery company, they are in a hurry and don't bother doing a proper job. If they would be forced to eat the cost, this wouldn't happen anymore. Basically they are outsourcing their job to the police force.
He had ordered it, so had the order, he had the delivery picture, and so on.
And even if people can't just "walk into people's homes over your word" they could still knock on them, question the person, and investigate the theft complaint.
The “defund the police” movement was onto something - but it has to be spelled out. - offload many of their jobs to metermaids and other ticket-issuers and keep armed POLICE for things like robberies, no-knock raids, breaking up fights and arresting violent criminals etc.
Most civil disputes can be - and are - handled by banks and insurance companies. This includes auto accidents and credit card chargebacks. Not even the justice system (public courts) need to get involved, they handle thousands of cases a day.
But don’t let everyone write tickets or it will go too far: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vJYaXy5mmA8
This is hugely different to what I understood from anyone in favour of defunding the police to mean.
So with due respect that reality doesn't exist.
One reason I buy stuff from Amazon mostly is they are big enough to eat the issues and I put enough business through one service to be a customer worth keeping. Everyone else, not so much. I won't go into how shit Apple are on this front.
It's a very tricky situation.
I started a dispute with my credit card company, but yesterday they emailed to tell me that they had "concluded their investigation" and that the item had indeed been delivered.
No further information. Just "it was delivered, you owe the retailer".
Apple Card uses Goldman Sachs for the bank and the customer service. While Apple may be an experienced provider of retail services, this sort of thing is relatively new to Goldman Sachs.
I contacted customer service and they believe that a report regarding the investigation will be sent to me. They might even have a delivery address. The order was placed four months ago...
Good luck getting through a situation like this with good outcome. It depends on all the players involved.
When it goes to collections, at least in the US, you can tell the collection agency that the charge is in dispute, and they have to leave you alone.
If the bank then puts a ding on your credit report, you can dispute it with the credit reporting agency.
At some point, someone decides this is too much of a waste of time and pays up.
If you go this route, read up on your rights and the exact process.
One early step is sending them a letter via registered mail saying the charge is invalid because you never received the item. That carries more weight than a phone call, and usually routes to a different department. It might solve the problem on your own.
Make sure the letter makes it clear you understand your rights and know what the CFPB is.
I have to consider if fifty bucks is worth the expense of following a procedure of insisting on my rights under current industry regulations.
Best solution is to file a small claim at your local court. Near certainty it won’t be disputed due to cost-benefit of the retailer having to hire a lawyer to defend it.
I've also learned the hard way, there again I have had police make so many mistakes for crimes in the past and ignore hard evidence that I lost faith in them years ago sadly. But this is the UK.
Though in your case, at stage it was at, once you had asked the recipient for it back and they said no, the police should have intervened due to the law of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theft_by_finding and acted.
Equally, the onus to prove delivery is upon the courier and again, you had a case there with them, so shouldn't of had to go thru that.
I agree, taking the law into your own hands alas seems to be the best solution in so many matters in the UK from my experience, sad and wrong but heck, we all want a simple life.
Also note from experience, the police (from a UK perspective) are not as aware of the laws as you would expect and had them tell me a matter was a civil matter and not criminal and raised complaint and had that upheld (lots of those) as they were wrong and the common laypersons expectations of the police is far short from reality, so always stand your ground and don't let anything slide as I used to do as it only erodes you away and enables incompetence to prevail.
That all said there are some good police (those that care and do their job properly) but sadly not as common as one would expect.
More detail: https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/somethings-gone-w...
So I phoned the police. They never turned up.
I opened up a credit card chargeback. But I was complaining about this to someone in the school playground and someone else overheard it. Turns out she was his next door neighbour. Said "I'll get it back for you". Sure enough that afternoon she turned up with it! Turns out the guy was a convicted paedophile and she knew that and said if he didn't give it back she'd tell everyone on the estate.
You need leverage or a good police force against criminals. The latter is rare so I suspect that taking matters in to your own hands is sometimes required.