Or am I being a parcel stealing, curtain twitching busybody?

[TwilightSkylightsAndA40WattBulb]

Name change.

A video has been posted on a local facebook group that looks like I have stolen parcels. The person who posted it said "what is the world coming to when the local druggy nicks your child's bedtime story books". I'm scared this will get back to my employer. I work for the civil service so if they dont get the full story, I will be sacked. I will tell my boss when she gets in. She wont find it funny and I'm humiliated. I dont take drugs but I did stumble in the video and I have a cold so was wiping my nose a lot which looks bad.

My husband thinks I was niave and shouldnt have got involved. I have the parcels but will I be liable for them if I put them back where I found them because they will get nicked? I dont really want to speak with the person as they are obviously looking for trouble.

I've already commented on the video and have asked admin the take it down.

Our Evri and Amazon driver has started leaving parcels on our doorsteps which are directly on the street. Obviously they arent there when we get home.

I walked past a neighbour's house yesterday. It is a few houses down but I dont know them. They had parcels leaning against their house (directly on the street/pavement). I thought I was being nice. I wish someone had taken in the ebay parcel I had stolen the other day because the item in that was irreplaceable. So I thoight I was being a good neighbour.

The video shows me look at the parcels as I walk past, then come back a few minutes later, pick them up and walk off with them. What actually happened was that I walk past, come back with a note, post it through the door and then walk away with the parcels. I didnt realise there was a camera or I would have made a big drama of posting the note. You can see the door on the video but because of how Im standing you can see Im doing sonething but not that I posted a letter through. The note was an A4 sheet of pink lined paper ripped from a book and folded in half so they would have seen it.

The note said that their parcels were left on the doorstep so Ive taken them in, my house number and that someone will be in for the rest of the day and today.

I dont know what to do with the parcels. I dont want to speak with this person but if I put them back they'll get stolen.

I'm humiliated. I wont do it again.

My husbabd thinks I was interfearing in sonething that didnt concern me and basically asked for trouble. I thought I was just being nice and doing what I wish other people did.

YABU - you should have left the parcels alone
YANBU - you were trying to be neighbourly

Absolutely it's common practice to leave parcels in someone's cardboard bin here, they stay clean and dry and hidden from thieves. Quite frankly if someone wanted to accuse me of being a druggy thief they're lucky I'm doing that for them instead of leaving their parcel back on doorstep in the open to 1. Get rained on and damaged or 2. Actually get stolen by a real druggy thief and yes if I'm being accused of stealing I'm providing proof to the community I've returned it.

I feel bad for you OP. You tried to do a nice thing, it backfired, and you don't have a coat that fits! Hope you find a nice one at the weekend.
There's not much more you can do re the parcels.

We literally did the same for a neighbour the other day and she thanked us profusely as she had actually gone away for a few days. We figured as much as her car was gone a day or two when we saw the parcel. Our delivery drivers used to always drop half the streets parcels to me when I was working from home - a bit annoying as then they would all come and collect it throughout the day. Now a lot of our parcels get chucked on the front doorstep without even the doorbell ringing. I’m too shy to take in a parcel of someone who I have never met but equally would be very grateful if anyone did it for me!

Sending you a big virtual hug because I think you may need one.

On my road we take parcels in for each other ALL the time, we’ve had porch pirates before and other ASB issues so there is a chat group most people are on, so it’s easy to let whoever know where the parcel is.

Please do not over worry about this. You did a nice thing. Personally, I don’t think I’d be taking in that particular neighbours parcels again though.

As for your coat and how you feel you looked, those cameras are awful, please do not over stress about it. I’m horrified every time I see myself on our cameras.

Signing off with another hug. You did a nice thing and most people would appreciate the thought.

Oh dear OP, what's that saying about the road to hell being paved with good intentions? Hopefully I can give you a bit of a laugh and a way forward. One of my neighbours died last year and several days after the funeral I walked up close to her house and stood there thinking about her.

The next day there was a post on the neighbourhood WhatsApp with my photo and a message along the lines of "Who is this suspicious looking woman hanging around mum's house - burglar?"

I explained (and apologized) immediately. Later that day, to try and inject some humour, I doctored an image of myself wearing a zoro mask and carrying a sack marked SWAG and posted on the same WhatsApp group "Just off on my nightly rounds". Defused the situation nicely.

I think the moral of the story is not to join these neighbourhood groups. Then you can live in blissful ignorance of anything unflattering they may post about you!

I think you did the right thing but don’t do it for them again. I think they have spotted you on Ring doorbell while still at work and posted on chat. They will only see your note when they get home. Obviously they didn’t recognise you so they did it. Just pop them over when they are back.

Glad you aren’t my boss you sound insufferable

If it’s not been taken down it would indicate they didn’t find the note, or they are lying and just wanted to shame you. I can’t think why anyone would do the latter to a neighbour they don’t know when they just want their parcels back. However rhey should now have your husbands note. Maybe there is a dog or animal in the property who ate the note. Or a kid who moved it,

id be going round, looking decent, or sending my husband, when I know they are home, to speak to them and say it has to be removed.

i can see their issue, if the note went missing and they see you walking past looking at the parcels, then coming back, stumbling over twice, rubbing your nose a lot, in an ill fitting coat and mad hair, then taking their parcels. they probably did think you’d stolen them but now they have the next note from the husband, they should remove the video or have it taken down.

A better option would be to just leave people's stuff alone. Then you wouldn't need to mess about with filming yourself round bins.

Anyone at any address who wants their parcel removed or relocated can easily arrange it.

A favour is not a favour if no one asked for it.

I think it's quite strange to pick up someone else's parcels, especially someone you don't know, unless it's something that's been arranged in advance.

Delivery drivers often leave parcels on doorsteps round here, I see them frequently. I wouldn't dream of picking them up. My new nextdoor neighbour had one left on their doorstep for 2 days recently and it never occurred to me to pick it up. They often have their gousto delivery left on the step too. They have a ring doorbell so I presumed they knew it was there. We do live in a quite low crime area though.

My assumption would be that if they have a camera doorbell they're fully aware the parcel is left on their step. Many deliveries take a photo of where it's left too.

Porch pirates is excellent. I'll be nicking that!

There was someone in our village who did this though without a note. She always said she took it for safekeeping. Nobody ever believed her. She’s still known in our house as Tealeaf Janet.

If you do regularly go out in clothes which don’t fit, then you’re not projecting a great image onto the world. And it does make you look a bit “dodgy.”

I remember once when to return something after I’d been helping a friend strip and scrub their new renovation house project when she just moved in, so I was dressed in my scruffiest of scruffy clothes and was very messy looking. The shop were very odd with me and then asked if I’d really bought this (had a recipe for quite an expensive item) or if I’d found the receipt and just picked it up from the shelf in order to get the money! I was shocked. Told them to check their CCTV, which they finally did. I’ve never been treated like that before and it must have been my appearance.

You’re a working adult; find the budget for a new coat. And stop interfering with things in future as your street sounds like it’s full of busybodies so it’s more hassle for you than it’s worth.

More like I don't suffer foolishness.

It's one thing doing it for someone you know, but these neighbours don't even know who OP is.

I had next door but one come looking for her parcel the other day. She asked if I had received her parcel by mistake, I said no, but she then she peered into my hallway behind me as if she didn't believe me and it was there

Best not to get involved with other people's crap. I take in parcels for the neighbours I know and that's all.

Porch pirates is what this type of thief is call. It’s not a new term. Put it into YouTube; thousands of videos.

No good deed goes unpunished

Your right it's not a favour if nobody asked about it, doesn't make it less kind though and doesn't mean OP is in the wrong for trying to be a good neighbour. Imagine if she'd seen it, left it and someone had took it for themselves and the person had to go through all the faff of proving it was stolen and getting a refund etc. I know what kind of neighbour I'd rather have and thankfully I live in a community that looks out for each other. I'm sure OP has learnt her lesson.

If your stuff has been stolen and lots of stuff on the street has then its not wild for someone to assume you stole it. Seem you live in a high crime area.

as for a note, 99.99% of what comes through our letter box is unsolicited junk mail. We get paperless post on all most everything so we don't check the junk and it just gets mass cleared into a trash bag every month or so.

Maybe your 'irreplaceable' item wasn't stolen either and one of your neighbors did the same.

I think there is a current trend of people wanting a "scalp" captured on their Ring doorbell, so they can post it on their local Facebook group. It is usually accompanied by comments such as "druggie" or "thieving scumbag". This happened to someone I know. It was their parcel from Amazon, with their name and address on it. Even with proof, they had to wait weeks to get the post and picture taken down. Great start, when you've just moved in to your new house. Welcome to the neighbourhood!

How were we meant to give the parcel back without knocking on the door? I mean he could stand and stare at the ring doorbell and hope he doesnt end up online too but I dont think that would work. The note was to reiterate where the parcel us and that we did try to redeliver it.

Ive got this image in my head of you thinking were playing Knock on Ginger but to make it extra hard that we have to put random notes through the postbox before running away.

Tbf yeah. It was not a good look.

I would comment on the video for all to see, ask for it to be removed and state that you were, what you thought, helping a neighbour, that you are full of cold and not a smack head and that you had popped a note through the door. Especially with it coming up to Christmas, the parcels will definitely go missing

It makes me sad. I would have really appreciated if a neigbnour had done that for me. Before people come at me for sahing that too, Im not expecting anything. I did it to be nice.

Oh god, dont let him hear you say that!