Delivery people trying front door and walking in if unlocked?

[FinallyMovingHouse]

Has anyone else noticed that delivery people will try your door and then drop the parcel inside the door if it's open? Has this always happened? Is it a regional thing?

We moved house 18 months ago and I've had it happen last year and now 3 times in the last couple of weeks; the first time I thought I'd imagined it, the second time was when the door was actually unlocked (I was next door for 2 mins), and the third time was yesterday, when I was in the front room, window open, working on a computer and coming to the door. All 3 were different delivery people but all men. Not had a woman do it, but 90% of our deliveries are by men.

Husband think's it's to do with our house type (we have a visible porch with second door beyond main entrance). There are also lots of flats along the road, so a house is less common. He entirely understands why we might not like it though.
Daughter and I are just amazed that anyone thinks it might be acceptable to just walk into someone's house without invitation, if a door is closed. Never mind the obvious threat of a complaint about the delivery person, plus risk of actions being misinterpreted (e.g. bodily threat) there's also the small matter of our huge and protective dog, who would absolutely take exception to an unknown man coming into the house.

Is this unusual? I should also point out that my front door is very, very rarely unlocked, so it's mostly trying the door handle over coming in.

I think it's amazing people would leave their front door unlocked for a stranger to walk in. What if you were upstairs and didn't notice a burglar?

Are they just going into the porch or the 2nd door too? The porch would make.sense but not the 2nd door.

I was at the door of my next door neighbour; wouldn't have left it unlocked otherwise.

So it’s just the door into the porch? Ours do that and I really like that they do.

Ah ok. So presumably the delivery person saw you and deduced it was reasonable as you being just outside was the reason for the door being open? I don't know. No harm done really. They're in a hurry and if a door is open I guess it's implied consent for postman or deliver person.

Porch only, but it's not an added on porch if you see what I mean. Victorian terrace, with front door of half frosted glass centrally, side panels and with another door further on. You can 'kind of' see it's a second door beyond, but not in any way clearly.

Yes that’s normal. I never locked the outer door. And there’s a ‘leave in porch’ option on most delivery instructions.

I would WANT them to leave it in the porch, otherwise it’s left on the doorstep and likely to be nicked.

It is because of the porch that they’re doing this. I doubt they would open a regular front door, they’re doing it because there’s a porch with presumably the second locked door.

I may not have been clear here as the door was not open (as in wide open), it was only unlocked. They had to turn the handle to try it and then go in. I was not able to be seen from our front door by the delivery person, so there's no way they would have thought I was the owner. I only realised he'd been in and dropped once I saw him coming out of the front gate.

Can't get couriers to even knock at the door. They just dump the parcel outside then send tracking saying it's been delivered.

I don't leave the front door unlocked either but I had some building work done last summer and couldn't work out why I was arriving home to a hallway of parcels (not for me) each night.

It turned out that one of the builders had agreed to take a parcel for my neighbour (no problem) but when the courier couldn't deliver other parcels in the road, he was leaving them at my house and telling people to collect them from my house!

This happened for about 5 days. In the end I had to tell the builder to not accept parcels and to lock the door.

Same here, porch left unlocked especially for deliveries. Works a treat, just lock the porch door if you dont like it!

Maybe they assume that anyone who leaves the door unlocked wants them to put their delivery inside?? I am always surprised at the amount of people who leave their doors unlocked. I feel sorry for delivery people. If they leave a package on the doorstep they are wrong, if they open an unlocked door they are wrong, if they take the parcel back to depo they are wrong.

This
just keep the door locked surely!

All delivery people just walk straight in here, porch or no porch. It's a rural area though.
If you're not rural I think pp are right, and it's because porches are viewed a bit like outhouses, ie it's not 'really' going into your actual house.

You'd be horrified to know that when I was growing up (I'm 39 so not the dark ages) any old neighbour, village acquaintance, or even meter reader would just walk straight in, call out hello. The meter was upstairs and they'd just stomp straight up. Times have changed (for the worse, small-community wise).

Well there’s a simple solution if it bothers you. Lock the door.

Porch is different, the whole point is people can leave things there.

Lock it if you are concerned.

Thanks all. Apparently it's normal, so I will just carry on keeping the door locked.

A friend - her family turned up and went inside and they forgot to lock the door.
A leaflet delivering person must have tried the handle and stole handbag with money and car keys from inside the house.
Chancers.

Keep doors locked.
Not got a porch but saw a delivery guy try our handle (got a camera).

Saw another having a good nose - looked like he was looking for cameras.
It’s good these cameras, saw a neighbour come over from across the way and was looking right over our fence to nose at the garden 😂 nob head
Not a lot for him to see 😂

We don’t have a porch but I can see it being handy for deliveries and would probably leave it unlocked for that very reason. Surely all that’s in it is wellies and brollies anyway?

Courier here. If it looks like an enclosed porch, I'm trying it. And yes, I've occasionally made a judgement error and found myself in someone's house proper (quick retreat necessary).

I need to average a drop every 2/3 minutes for 10 hours straight. If there's an easy few, then I might actually make enough time to get the farms etc done.