An Edmonton woman is sharing her story of a package theft incident – along with video of it – in hopes it helps raise awareness during a season where many people expect deliveries on their doorsteps.
Kristin Carnigan said she did not realize a package had been stolen from her southwest Edmonton home until she received an email from Amazon on Monday night stating that her parcel had been delivered. When she did not see it on her porch, she reviewed her doorbell camera.
Video captured by her doorbell camera from Monday afternoon shows a woman approaching her porch, taking a box and walking back to a waiting vehicle, which then pulls out of the frame. The video was taken in the Terwillegar Towne neighbourhood.
“I wasn’t sure I wanted to post the video or pictures on social media but a couple of my friends convinced me to do so just to get her picture out there and maybe someone would recognize her,” Carnigan said in a statement to Global News.
Carnigan said she normally gets packages delivered to her office but did not in this case. She will be filing a police report and said Amazon has already re-shipped replacement items to her.
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A spokesperson for Edmonton Police Service said officers are investigating the incident.
A 2019 package theft statistics report from C+R Research shows that out of 2,000 Americans surveyed who shopped online at least once in the last 12 months, 36 per cent had a package stolen.
The survey shows that of those package theft victims, 44 per cent then installed a doorbell camera or other security camera to prevent future thefts.
Furthermore, 47 per cent of total respondents worried about having a package stolen this 2019 holiday season.
“I think it spikes a lot during the holiday shopping season but it’s something happening all year round with just the rise of e-commerce,” said Matt Zajechowski, C+R Research spokesperson.
“It’s something we should come to expect. We’re signing up for this service that’s conveniently leaving a package outside.”
Zajechowski said he expects the number of people flocking to doorbell or security cameras to rise in the future.
Some tips from Edmonton police and C+R Research to protect your deliveries:
- Use a delivery tracking app for your packages
- Have someone at home to receive parcels
- Send your parcels to another address, like your workplace, if you can’t be home during delivery
- Ship packages to Canada Post outlets
- Consider in-store pick-up for your purchases
- Require a signature on a package so it can’t be left at the door
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