Package stolen? Help!

[foxyroxyyy]

My DH ordered from an auctioneer site and the item has been delivered to our old address by mistake.

DPD sent us a picture of the person receiving the delivery and as we don't have contact details he popped round yesterday to pick it up. No answer so left a note.

Still haven't heard anything. DPD can't do anything. Auctioneer site can't do anything unless she agrees a time to be home so it can be picked up.

Hubby is worried she has decided to keep the item.

AIBU to say we know where she lives and that she has it so she wouldn't be silly enough to steal it? It's worth some money but not close to life changing amounts. And it's the type of item only certain people will like.
Wise mumsnetters, is DH right, should we be panicked?

[littlepattilou]

I am still baffled as to why the woman is denying having the package (to the neighbours who asked her for it,) when she was pictured (by DPD) holding it.

It's all very baffling.

Any luck yet @foxyroxyyy ?

[IntermittentParps]

I think your being pretty rude... you inconvenianced the woman and are now mad at her because shes not jumping through your hoops.

And as for the overdramatic "package has been STOLEN" bollocks, no it hasn't.There could be thousands of reasons why she hasn't responded yet.
You fucked up, not her.
You should be incredibly apologetic not accusing her of theft.

Are people stupid, or deliberately obtuse? The woman has been directly asked by a neighbour about the parcel and said she didn't know what he was talking about. Which, seeing as a photo exists of her taking it in, is dubious to say the least.

Katherine, I know, I said 'sneaky' wasn't the best word. I think I meant more like 'not a strong enough action'; like a threatening letter rather than an up-front 'You have been photographed taking in my package and you deny having it, so I'm now going to have to involve the police.'

[FuckyouCovid21]

@GroovyClementine

There are an awful lot of posters being shitty to the OP.

Bet they'd change their tune if an error caused hundreds of pounds worth of their purchases to end up in the house of someone who denied ever seeing them.

Is easy to pass judgement when it isn't your money and/or property at stake.

Mistakes happen. One should have the right to correct them where possible, so long as no one is harmed in the process.

No one should feel entitled to keep a parcel that is not meant for them because someone else "fucked up" an address change.

This in spades. You'd think some people had never made any mistakes the way they're wanging on at OP

[Ednadidit]

@MsSquiz

Yes love, I can read. It’s entirely possible that she didn’t realise it wasn’t in her name when she accepted it. This wouldn’t have happened without a bit more care from the OP, to be honest. It’s odd that she’s been so difficult about returning it but, as I said, literally not at the top of her list of priorities. Also, literally not DPD’s fault. They delivered to the address provided by the purchaser. Maybe you could calm down with the exclamations, too 🙄

[PlanetOfTheApesLives]

My husband's passport went to another road with a similar address (number the same but different street). They take a picture when posting passports through homes.

He went around several times and they never answered. We reported to passport office and they checked and indeed the person had it and they sent someone around - the owner of property said wasn't his so binned it! WTF idiot.

[littlepattilou]

@PlanetOfTheApesLives

My husband's passport went to another road with a similar address (number the same but different street). They take a picture when posting passports through homes.

He went around several times and they never answered. We reported to passport office and they checked and indeed the person had it and they sent someone around - the owner of property said wasn't his so binned it! WTF idiot.

Not really the same though. The OP/her husband is the one who didn't change the address. DPD and the auction site - I assume ebay - have done nothing wrong.

I know mistakes are easy to make, and we all make them, but it's the OP and her husband who are responsible for the package going to their old address. I am not being nasty to the OP; just stating a fact.

The woman (the new occupier,) doesn't actually owe the OP and her husband anything, and the man whose house your husband's passport went to didn't owe him anything either. Sounds harsh, but it's true, and he had every right to just bin it, as whilst it was a very important document to your husband, it was junk to him.

Very recently, my work colleague had a letter from the DVLA delivered to her house, that had her address on it, but someone else's name who she had never heard of. She opened it because she wanted to know why the DVLA were writing to her house, to someone who didn't live there. It was a V5C document, (car ownership document.)

She had not seen the car named on the V5C in her road, and she knew no-one by the name on it. So obviously, someone (at the DVLA, ) put a typo in the address.

So she contacted the DVLA and told them she had had a V5C form in someone else's name with HER address. They said she needs to write a letter to the DVLA, absolving herself from all knowledge of this person and this car, and that if any false statements are made, she will be issued with court action!

They then said, she needs to put the document in an envelope, (with the letter she has to type up and print out, declaring she accepts she will be taken to court if she is lying,) and post it. When my friend asked if they'd send a self addressed envelope for it, they said 'no, you need to go to the post office, and get it weighed, so you put the correct postage on it.'

So this document had come to her house because of an admin fuck-up at THEIR end, but my friend was meant to sort it out for them, PAY for the postage, go to her closest town 5 miles away, where the nearest post office is, and wait in a queue for 20 minutes before being served, as it's always packed..

And as for being threatened with legal action! She put the phone down and said 'fuck that!' and ripped the V5C up and binned it.

She had not mentioned her address or name - OR the name of the person on the V5C form, so they had no record of her, or her address, and her phone number is withheld. The document had gone to her house of course, but she said if anyone ever mentioned it, she would say she knows nothing about it, and that anyway, anything that comes to her house that is not addressed to her or anyone who lives there gets sent back with 'not known at this address' written on it.

Fucking cheek!

[littlepattilou]

Going back to the original issue, as I said, whilst some people are not to blame for things going wrong, (like my work colleague,) sadly, the OP (well, her husband!) IS in the wrong here. The woman should give back the item of course, but none of this is her fault.

Personally, I would not hand something back that had been mistakenly delivered, unless (as a pp said much earlier in the thread,) I knew the person - like it was a neighbour of mine. Because as someone mentioned earlier, there are scams where people buy stuff with other peoples credit cards and get them delivered to random peoples homes, and then send a fake DPD driver to retrieve it.

I would simply contact the company and tell them I had it, and it's not mine and they need to send someone from DPD to get it. That said, I am extremely unlikely to accept anything not in my name anyway. I'm not being smug, I am just very careful and very suspicious, and I just simply wouldn't accept/sign for a package at my home that wasn't for me or DH. And neither would he.

And I certainly wouldn't be trekking to the post office with a massive Christmas order containing around £300 worth of Boots products that had been delivered to me in error either, like a pp talked about earlier. She said all her stuff had been delivered to someone else's house who she didn't know, and this random person lugged it all to the post office and sent it back to Boots. Nahhh, fuck that! Like fuck would I have done that!

[IntermittentParps]

he had every right to just bin it, as whilst it was a very important document to your husband, it was junk to him.
What a terrible fucking attitude. What kind of person thinks 'I'll just chuck this passport away; it's only junk' rather than thinking 'Shit, this is someone's passport, they'll need it.'?

With the DVLA thing, your friend could have just said 'I'm not doing that but you may arrange a pickup and come and get it' rather than ripping it up.

[MLMsuperfan]

I once arrived back home to see a huge box (washing machine sized) in the back garden. On inspection it was labeled with an address similar to ours but about half a mile away; e.g. 50 Church Drive and we live at 50 Church Road.

I walked around to the other address and knocked, told the lady there what had happened. She seemed grateful and said she'd be round to collect it (I didn't want to carry it there because I didn't know if they'd be in and it was pretty big).

ANYWAY in the evening a man (presume husband arrived), knocked very loudly at the door and said that he'd phoned the company and they'd said we'd signed for it (we really hadn't, it was just put in our back garden while we were out). I just said 'oh well you've got it now' or something, but he carried on. He angrily demanded to know why we'd signed. He was quite intimidating. He took the parcel and left without saying anything more.

I'm not sure if I had another misdelivered parcel what I would do, after that. But, I conclude that the receiver of the misdelivered parcel often becomes the subject of the intended recipient's ire. This is the case with OP.

[Moondust001]

Bet they'd change their tune if an error caused hundreds of pounds worth of their purchases to end up in the house of someone who denied ever seeing them.

But it was the OP's error, and nobody else's. If I make an error that costs me money, then I am afraid that is on me. Hopefully, I can resolve it, but if I cannot, then that's my tough luck and will teach me to be more careful.

I'm also interested in this photo that exists of her accepting the delivery. I get quite a few DPD parcels, and they take a photo of the parcel at the open door - not of the person accepting it, because that would be a breach of GDPR to store personal images. So, in fact, it could be that the woman genuinely did not know about the parcel - perhaps someone else accepted it?

Whilst I agree that if whoever lives at this address has a parcel that they know was sent to them in error should respond / return it, I think that calling them thieves is hardly likely to motivate them. In the end the delivery was made to the address given to the auction house and to DPD; and I think it may be rather difficult to prove theft which involves taking something (there is intent involved) not accepting something that has been given to you and which was correctly delivered to your address.

[SheldonesqueTheBstard]

Yes it was Op’s husband mistake. Of course it was.

Those of us who manage to make it through life without making a mistake are indeed blessed.

I might be a b’stard but I’m not so much of a wanker as to keep something that I know doesn’t belong to me.

That would make me a thief. Regardless of the fact that I didn’t don a balaclava and jemmy open someone’s window to get it.

It isn’t their parcel. They will be aware of that. Keeping it does make them a thief. An opportunistic one.

[PixieDust28]

I can't believe she hasn't given it back!
You have the picture from DPD so could you not get the police involved?

[diddl]

"which was correctly delivered to your address."

But would it not be reasonable to assume that the parcel belongs to the person to whom it is addressed & who has paid for it?

That said, isn't theft deliberately (permanently?) depriving someone of something?

Of course that may not be her intention-she's just not jumping through hoops to do anything about the parcel!
We

[chaosmaker]

Not a lot of help but I hope you've corrected your address on all sites that you use now. Hope you get your delivery back. x

[MLMsuperfan]

What's happened OP?

[foxyroxyyy]

Update!

We FINALLY got it back on Saturday. And yes I accept I over reacted at first but she did bloody try to nick it!!!

It was completely opened and out of the box (assuming she threw it away as she gave it to us with no packaging and obviously it didn't arrive like that)

She acted as though we were bothersome and made a comment about opening it to see what it was - but then why wouldn't she put it back in the box? It's been a right palaver sorting it all out.
I don't think she would've returned it had the auctioneers not written to her as she continued ignoring us and former neighbours.

[fourminutestosavetheworld]

I'm glad it's all sorted now op and hope you can enjoy your purchase. What a horrible woman.

[Eve]

Love a happy ending, glad you got it.

[KatherineJaneway]

Good news

[IntermittentParps]

Thanks for updating, OP, and I'm pleased for you

Silly woman. Without saying what it is, do you think it's something she/someone else would have liked ie do you think she was planning on just keeping it?

[Wrotten]

She sounds like a right twat.

Send her some dicks to suck as a thank you.

[CantHaveTooMuchChocolate]

So glad you got it back! Thanks for updating!

[WeatherwaxOn]

Glad you got it in the end.
Quite astounded at the people on here who'd just bin something that was obviously wrongly addressed.
Yes, it's a bit of hassle, but it's morally the right thing to do to try to find the owner or return to sender.

Re: DVLA issue, it would have been easier, if it had the wrong name on the address to return the form, unopened, with 'no such person at this address' written on the envelope.

[stayathomegardener]

Great update! Thank you.
What was the item out of interest?

[foxyroxyyy]

@IntermittentParps

Thanks for updating, OP, and I'm pleased for you

Silly woman. Without saying what it is, do you think it's something she/someone else would have liked ie do you think she was planning on just keeping it?

I guess someone could like it or think they could sell it on. I still can't believe she took it out of the box. It's massive and wouldn't have fit well in her living room! (I used to live there)

For those that asked it was an extra large piece of art.