To want my parcel - woman denying accepting it but I have a photo..

Good for you, OP. I do appreciate that court can be very stressful, and that this isn't exactly a high-value crime, but I agree with others that this might be either part of a bigger investigation or they're just tired of parcel crime and looking for someone to make an example of.
It wouldn't end up in court, but will just go as far as the police confronting her with your statement and given her a stern ticking-off. Which she deserves/has brought on herself.

It’s the principle of it though, regardless of the cost. You went to collect your parcel with proof that it had been delivered and were told a big fat no! Someone is lying to you. Let’s hope it doesn’t need to go as far you being a witness, if the riddle is solved beforehand.

Ahahah you’d have to be a pretty ineffective scammer wouldn’t you? Given that you a) reported incident to police, b) forgot to extract any money 😂

I think you absolutely do need to follow through and go to court!

What was the point of reporting and having an officer really put in time and effort on this otherwise? We hear so much about crime being ignored (as you yourself thought may happen), yet you've found someone who did take it seriously, did put in effort, so how will they feel about their wasted time and effort if you won't follow through now? That really is a waste of resources.

Your individual parcel may not have been worth much, but as many stories on here have shown you, this happens a lot. It must add up to millions each year. Unless some cases start to go to court, then nothing will change. A few cases followed through locally might be enough for people in your area to know that this will be seen seriously, as word does spread.

As for the woman, if the police have decided to prosecute and not just have a firm chat or give her a warning, then perhaps she either has form for other things, or she gave them enough attitude to piss them off before she confessed.

At the very least, go down to the station, have a chat and see what evidence they have that has made them decide to prosecute in this case. At the end of the day, they won't be putting her away for years, surely she's more likely to get some sort of community service order.

It was a lighthearted comment which I made. If I implied something which you do not like, then I am very sorry for it.

The fact is that this thread is very interesting, so it wouldn't just be the day in court you would dine out on, but the whole story which led up to it.

I am sorry if I insulted you. It was not my intention.

Nicked

She’s knicked your stuff Bit
**

No, when I said it's her modus operandi I was saying being a lying, thieving cow is her m.o. - nobody has ever just all of a sudden stolen a parcel out of the blue and then calmly lied to their victim's face, with back up from the lying, thieving husband. Whether it's parcel theft or other types of theft and criminal activity, they have had plenty of practice at unethical behaviour and being unscrupulous people.

The calm, smug lying about it right to her victim's face is what sealed it for me.

You clearly don't understand how the scam works
Of course the op has a photo, because the parcel is genuinely delivered. The accomplice picks it up an hour or so later saying its been wrongly delivered.. I don't think the op is a scammer but I can see how the police might think she is.

Look at it this way: that woman has given you a new experience in life, and going to court will give you something to talk about for years.

Can't you imagine your grandchildren sitting round the fire on Christmas Eve saying to you?: ''Tell us about the time you went to court''!

How can you not want to do it? Don't think about the stress, think about the triumph at the end of it.

I really don't see how that would work in this case, since OP has a photograph of the parcel being accepted and therefore it seems likely the people at her old house would still have that parcel two days later and could simply give it to her – or if really exasperated, send it back to the person who sold it. OP was not pretending to be a courier; she was the person who sold them the house and they ought to have known perfectly well who she was. And since presumably the police have OP's name and address, the scam is a non-starter.

I don’t believe the police suspect her at all!

There is a well known scam where people order goods to be delivered to someone else's house. They then send someone round purporting to be a courier to collect it saying it has been delivered in error. Then the perpetrators extorts money from the hapless recipient accusing them of theft.
I suspect this might be what the police suspect the OP of. I can see why else they would be involving themselves

Ah, that makes some sense of it. Thank you!

Possibly taking delivery of neighbours parcels when they’re out and then denying all knowledge ? There was a thread on MN recently from an OP who had to specify with couriers that they were not to deliver to her neighbour as she wouldn’t hand parcels over.

No. The courier has no responsibility because they delivered to the correct address, but that doesn’t absolve the woman herself. She took the parcel in, there are photos to prove it and she’s denying any knowledge of it. It’s theft.

That simply means it is not the courier or sellers problem to resolve.

It doesn't mean the recipient isn't guilty of theft if they keep the parcel.

In your bank transfer analogy - the bank is not at fault, the money was sent to the bank account specified. However if the recipient is not the intended recipient and they try to keep the money, they're guilty of theft.

It had the OP’s name on it, so clearly it did not belong to the woman who moved there. I had the same scenario and the Police agreed with me.

It was delivered to the correct address, the op's mistake. If it had gone to a neighbour as the op was out fine but it was the op's responsibility to make sure delivery address was correct.

It's like when folk do a bank transfer to the wrong account no one sends the police round it is written down as user error.

I'm a bit confused about the idea that this woman makes a habit of stealing other people's parcels; presumably only the OP sold her the house, so there can't be that many people getting things sent to that address by accident because they used to live there.

Not a waste of time- this is a case of theft!

The police will sort it out as it’s theft