Scam tactic or genuine mistake? Delivery man leaves package at wrong address, returns to retrieve and then claims items missing
PUBLISHED ONJuly 16, 2023 7:35 AMBYOng Su Mann
It could just be a mistake.
A delivery man allegedly left a package at the wrong address, then returned to retrieve it a day later but claimed that items were missing from the package.
Stomp contributor Derfla said this happened to her family last month and suspects it might have been some sort of attempted scam.
She recounted: "A delivery man had left a package at our doorstep around 9pm. As my sister and I often order things online, my dad who was in the living room at that time received the package, assuming we have ordered things again.
'We soon realised that it was a package that we did not order. There was no delivery order or invoice attached to it and the delivery man did not ask for my dad's signature to prove that item was successfully delivered."
The package was a cooler bag.
"We decided to take a video while opening the cooler bag, should anything happen. And I am glad we did," said the Stomp contributor.
"Note that we have not taken or removed anything from the bag."
"Should the deliveryman learn that he had delivered the package to the wrong address, he might come back to retrieve it. We waited until after 11pm before turning in for the night. The man did not show up.
"The next afternoon, the deliveryman came back. He apologised to us for sending the package to the wrong address and we returned the package to him.
"The man came back again at around 8pm, claiming that two bottles of honey were missing from the cooler bag. my dad tried explaining to him that we had not taken anything from the bag. He insisted that the cooler bag returned to him was short two bottles of honey.
"We then showed him the video that we had taken and told him that if he was still not convinced, we could call the police and let them handle it.
"He then left. Thankfully, we’ve the video as proof."
The Stomp contributor wondered whether it was "a scam tactic or a genuine mistake".
She added: "The purpose of sharing this story is to create awareness. Please do not receive any package that is 'wrongly' delivered to you. Otherwise, they may come back later and make you pay for it."
This article was first published in Stomp. Permission required for reproduction.
