Chicago — Package thieves, the bane of 21st-century living, are even skeezier than we imagined. Across Chicago, package-poaching porch pirates are dressing up as Amazon delivery drivers to make themselves look less suspicious.
They walk around neighborhoods and pretend to deliver packages to people’s homes while wearing hats, surgical masks, and ski masks. But surveillance videos shared with CWB Chicago show they’re actually taking deliveries, not making them.
Both videos were recorded in the past week.
In one, a real Amazon driver drops off a package, records the delivery on her handheld, and then motors away in an Amazon truck. Less than 20 minutes later, a masked man in an Amazon jacket takes the packages.
In the other incident, a FedEx driver tosses a package onto a porch and snaps a picture of the completed delivery. Five minutes later, a ski-masked man wearing an Amazon jacket and carrying a package walks up to the porch. The package he’s holding is a prop that makes it look like he’s completing a delivery. What he’s really doing is stealing the FedEx parcel.
Watch carefully as couriers make deliveries and thieves take them within minutes:
The second thief, the one in the red track pants, was caught on another video in a different neighborhood doing the same thing about ten minutes later.
Thieves have been known to trail delivery drivers so they can more easily swipe packages before the recipients have time to pick them up.
As usual, the best way to avoid having your goods stolen is to have purchases sent to local stores or lockers for pickup. Another option, if your boss agrees, is to have items shipped to your work location.
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