‘One of my neighbours keeps stealing and defacing my parcels – it’s so creepy’

A person claims they’ve been left feeling ‘creeped out’ after learning that one of their neighbours had been stealing and defacing the parcels they’d had delivered to the apartment building

When you order something straight to your home but you live in an apartment complex, getting your parcels can be a little more tricky. They may be left in the wrong part of the building and it may take a little longer to locate where the package has been left by the courier.

One person recently took to Reddit’s ‘neighbours from hell’ forum to express their horror that someone seemed to be stealing parcels and even going as far as to deface them – but it only happened when parcels were delivered to the front of the building, sparking concern from the resident.

They claimed: “In the past when our mail is delivered to the back, even if it’s sitting there for a few days it has never gone missing. This side of the building (the back) has a camera installed facing the door/mailboxes, for safety purposes as this door just happens to sometimes not close fully and lock. So maybe, that’s a part of the reason our mail isn’t messed with.”

They went on to say that recently the mail has been mistakenly delivered to the front of the building and has gone missing. As they’ve been sent proof of delivery for each item, they think a neighbour is stealing the packages.

The Redditor initially decided to give the potential thief the ‘benefit of the doubt’, so texted their landlord about the situation, who then sent a message to the building saying: “If things get misdelivered, please don’t open them and bring them around to the back mail area.”

However, the drama didn’t stop there, as the tenant explained that ‘the other day it happened again’, saying they were left ‘mad’ and ‘confused’.

They continued: “A Christmas gift I ordered for my partner off Etsy was marked delivered by USPS, again ‘in mailbox’. We were away for the weekend so I couldn’t get to it right away. Lo and behold, yesterday I go to get it and it’s not in my box. We go to the front, and it’s nowhere. We checked out neighbours’ slots, nothing.

“So, I once again texted the landlord politely letting him know our packages have been stolen for the third time and asked him to write some kind of sign for USPS or the other tenants to try and stop this.

“He texted everyone again, and at the same time my boyfriend wrote a note saying something along the lines of ‘if you’ve picked up the mail that does not belong to you, please return it to the correct address unit #___ [both our last names], these are gifts for loved ones’ and placed it above the front side’s mailboxes.”

The next morning, the resident checked their mailbox and was horrified by what they saw.

“Well, the item was there in my box – open, no packaging, and the business card it was attached to was scribbled all over. Lmao. I am just so confused and creeped out to be honest. The fact that it was opened, written on, and left in our mailbox tells me that someone absolutely stole it, and was planning to do something with it (sell it maybe?) if it was worth any money.

“I’m suspecting they saw the note, felt guilty, and because the item was just an enamel pin they figured it wasn’t really worth keeping and returned it. I have no idea. I’m just mad, and the fact that they basically defaced the business card does make me suspicious that maybe they’re stealing packages and reselling them online somehow. Or they’re just a d*** and like stealing mail for fun.

“Either way, they suck majorly. I’m glad I got it back, but I feel like I can’t even have mail delivered here anymore because there’s like a 50 percent chance it’ll go missing.”

People flocked to the comments to make sensible suggestions to make the original poster’s life easier and to share their similar stories.

One wrote: “Ask your employer if they’d be okay with having your packages delivered to work. This is what I ended up doing.”

Someone else commented: “Once had one of my packages opened and left on my door when obviously the person realised it was of no interest to them (Warhammer stuff) and a neighbour’s packet was opened and dumped on my door mat too (again if no interest to the thief as it was just T-shirts).

“I was really mad about that one because it made me look like a shady thief when I took it around to my neighbours.”

Another made a hilarious suggestion though, writing: “I’d look into the rude glitter bombs.

“Might as well order a few or make them yourself so you can send several, you know just to make sure they have the fear of glitter put in them!”

What would you do in this situation? Let us know in the comments.