An Amazon delivery driver placed a customer’s package on a tree to protect it from “porch pirates.”
In a viral TikTok video, Chicago-based photographer Heather Rowland (@__greensilk) showed viewers a message sent to her by an Amazon delivery driver in charge of delivering a package she ordered. “I apologize for the location of the package,” the driver wrote. “I was trying to throw it away haha.”
Rowland then showed viewers that the package was stuck in a tree outside her apartment and shared that she was able to retrieve it by pulling on the branches and reaching up. “Last night I spent 20 minutes searching and didn’t notice. [the package] until my walk this morning,” he revealed while responding to a comment.
Since posting the video on January 4, Rowland has received more than 110,000 views on the platform. Interested viewers flocked to Rowland’s comments section to express their reactions and opinions on the delivery driver’s unique package protection methods. “No more worries about porch pirates,” one person wrote.
“I asked a former agent to hide a box so it wouldn’t be stolen, but he hid it so well that it took me 2 days to find it,” someone shared.
Meanwhile, another took issue with the fact that the driver simply left the package on the tree. “They could have at least told where [the package was,]”commented another person. “I wouldn’t even think of looking in a tree.”
“So they left it?” someone else wrote, to which Rowland responded that there was a locked door outside his apartment that the driver didn’t know how to get through. “I was throwing it over the door.”
Rowland clarified that there was no hard feelings, adding: “They were very kind [about] That, the package wasn’t damaged, just a funny situation to be honest. [to be honest].”
According to American security company ADT, an estimated 36 percent of Americans have had a package stolen outside their home, either at the door or on the porch, at least once. They added that “porch pirates,” people who steal packages out of people’s homes, typically commit crimes of opportunity in the hopes that what’s in the package consists of valuable merchandise such as electronics.
They recommend that people use preventative security measures, such as a video surveillance system, so that authorities can identify and locate the “porch pirate” or suspect. Customers can also get a “pirate porch bag,” a large bag made of durable material in which delivery drivers can be instructed to lock packages. Typically, these bags are attached to a fixed object on the porch or door, along with a combination lock attached.
ADT also said customers can pay for a package receiving service or request a signature for the package to be delivered, with the latter guaranteeing that you must be present to receive the package.
