With fear of porch pirates rising with holiday online shopping, a Vancouver man says a package delivery worker may have committed the perfect crime.
Frank Tridico says he received a text message on Sunday that his package from Amazon had arrived at his home. The text message included a picture of that package on the doorstep.
Because he wasn’t home at the time, Tridico immediately called his father-in-law and asked him to bring the package inside.
“He opened the door, and it was gone,” he said.
Tridico then decided to review the footage from the multiple security cameras he installed six months ago around the property.
The footage shows the delivery worker pull up in his van and walk up the steps to the door with the package, presumably to take the picture from the text message.
Moments later, the worker is seen leaving with the package still in his hands. Seconds after the worker drives away, Tridico’s father-in-law pulls up in his car.
While neighbours or passers-by might have assumed the delivery worker needed a signature and left when no one was home, Tridico says that’s not what happened in this case.
“You can see him kind of back his head back, he looks down the street, sees if anyone is watching, and then he walks down the steps and walks back to his truck, giving another glance to make sure no one’s looking,” he said.
“And then he takes off.”
Tridico reported the incident to both Vancouver police and Amazon, but did not get far with either of them.
“They said unless there’s a long string of the same style of thieving, because the dollar value wasn’t there, it wasn’t worth investigating any further,” he said.
Vancouver police said in a statement officers did investigate the incident on Monday, and that Amazon is investigating and has refunded the cost of the package.
Amazon confirmed it is continuing to investigate the matter and wants to review Tridico’s security video.
A study commissioned by FedEx and shared with Global News on Thursday surveyed 1,500 Canadians, and found one in four reported having a package stolen from their doorstep.
The survey also found 70 per cent of respondents who shop online worry about package theft, and one in 10 of those surveyed said they don’t shop online for that very reason.
— With files from Ted Chernecki and Tomasia DaSilva