by 
The first time, some footwear had mysteriously disappeared. I ordered it online, got a message telling me which parcel delivery company had the honor, and another a few days later telling me that my item had been “delivered”. Fortunately, I was at home to intercept the package. Except when I opened the front door – minutes after hearing the happy news of his arrival – there was nothing.
“They didn’t even ring the bell!” I screamed at no one.
Sloppy delivery, yes, probably by a courier to get another hundred through that evening. But it seemed that I was not the victim of the courier, but the parcel thief on the doorstep. After all, I had photographic proof that the parcel had been left on my doorstep moments earlier.
In vain, I scoured my suburban street in case the thief had opened the box, realized that the shoes were not that big and dropped them into a hedge. He had not.
My situation is not uncommon. Recent freedom of information requests to British police forces from Quadient, a technology company, found a 57 per cent rise in parcel theft over the past year, with an average reported stolen parcel value of £66.50. It was estimated that there were around 16,421 port thefts in the 12 months to August 2023 (extract from figures provided by forces responding to requests for information). This was compared to the 10,485 estimated to have been reported in the previous 12 month period.
Cambridgeshire had the highest total value of reported theft (£33,729), closely followed by Northumbria (£33,408). But this is probably due to better reporting and recording of the crime, rather than because these areas are necessarily the country’s gateway piracy hotspots.
Either way, the data reveals a hidden economy worth £206 million in stolen goods, according to Quadient. Now, as we begin our Christmas shopping in earnest, online deliveries will reach their annual peak. And as more packages appear, more opportunities arise for thieves to intercept them.
“About a quarter of it [doorstep thefts] between November and December,” says Gary Winter, vice president of global strategic initiatives at Quadient. “We know that a lot of it is stolen for resale, not personal consumption.”
Not all packages are of common interest and are so called “pirates”. What they particularly want is sports and recreational clothing, says Winter, who has previously worked with two delivery firms.
“When I was working with one of the carriers we used to monitor [it]and if you were in a sportswear company or an athleisure company, you were two or three times more likely [to see your delivered items stolen].
“A lot of these brands are very proud to put their logo on the side of the packaging. But maybe you’ll stick to ‘I stole’ because it’s clear what’s inside.”
The appeal of sportswear lies in how easily it can be sold online, he says, with large consumer-to-consumer platforms such as eBay and Facebook inadvertently providing marketplaces for such trade. “If you buy a pair of trainers [on sites like these] when it says ‘not worn’, there’s a chance they were stolen,” says Winter.
Since the items are sold for less than the suggested retail price, they seem like a bargain to the unknowing customer. “It’s very tempting,” says Winter. “[But in buying them] you could be unwittingly fueling these crimes.”
Although the UK isn’t the only place with a problem with piracy, it seems the crime is growing faster here than anywhere else. A report on global parcel theft by firm Penn Elcom suggested that more than 8 million packages were lost or stolen in the UK from May 2021 to April 2022. This was an increase of more than 5 per cent compared to the previous year – the increase The most. in parcel problems around the world.
Of all regions in the UK, it was found that Wales had the biggest increase in parcel theft compared to the previous year.
The much higher figures than Quadient’s are explained by the fact that the scale of the problem is underrepresented by police reports, as consumers are likely to report the theft only to the retailer or delivery firm, rather than to the police.
It is a crime born of modern lifestyles, with the explosion in online shopping providing new opportunities for thieves. Although it was assumed that as we exit the pandemic and return to stores, piracy would decline, this is not the case. Online shopping has soared during Covid, of course; but unlike wearing masks or obsessive hand hygiene, we didn’t lose the habit afterwards. Although Office for National Statistics data shows that UK internet sales as a percentage of total retail sales increased significantly around the third lockdown in January 2021, at almost 38 per cent, it never slipped back to pre-pandemic levels (20 per cent in January 2020). Last month, online purchases accounted for more than a quarter of all retail sales. Meanwhile, package theft nationwide has risen more than 500 percent since 2019, according to Quadient.
Unlike during the pandemic, we are now more likely to be out of the house when our deliveries are made. According to Quadient, some thieves are even tailing delivery vans, watching where they leave the packages, and then sneaking off. “I’ve even heard a few reports of people holding up delivery vans,” says Winter.
More often, they will wait until the courier has gone, then swipe the parcel. The retailer or the delivery company can usually replace the item, depending on who is liable. In some cases, it is not possible.
“I had a limited edition t-shirt stolen from the communal area in my block of flats,” says Andy Lloyd-Williams, 36, from east London, who works in communications. “I told the retailer and they refunded me but they couldn’t send me a replacement, which was frustrating.”
It is often not even necessary for the thief to gain entry to communal areas in apartment blocks. Couriers who are under pressure to make all their deliveries for the day don’t always have time to make sure the package is safe.
“My wife’s Christmas present was put in the wheelie bin once,” says Winter. “I had to empty the bin and dig it out. Luckily I got there before the rubbish lorry.”
Couriers are usually self-employed and are paid a piece rate to deliver each parcel, he says. This can range from as little as 40p or 50p a parcel to £2 or so, with up to 200 packages delivered in one day at this time of year. In the run-up to Christmas, a large number of temporary staff are taken on, “and they may not have as much experience, a bit of desperation is creeping in and they are willing to quit. [in terms of where they leave items],” says Winter.
Under the car, in a bin, wedged in the wrought iron railings above the front door – we’ve all experienced the “paperboy from a US movie” delivery style. (The paperboy, that is, who lays his load off the road and hopes for the best.)
“Messengers just need to do the job,” says Paul Needler, chief executive of iParcelBox, a smart delivery box company. “The reason they put things over people’s walls is because they have goals.”
Research published by the Citizens Council in November found that a third of shoppers had a delivery problem with the last parcel they received, last month. Among the problems were parcels left in insecure places and parcels arriving late. Yodel, DPD and Evri were the worst offenders according to the research.
But it’s not all bad news, says Neill O’Sullivan, director of parcel and post management at the Post Office. “If you go back even a few years, the standard [requirement for delivery] it was just a very big signing and delivery window,” he says. “It would be a day or two or even longer. What you see now is a lot more information and customer choice about changing the delivery location or adding a safe place.”
Fighting this type of crime requires a “three-way deal” between the person who sends the package, the person who delivers it and the person who receives it, says Winter. Safer delivery options, such as using the Post Office to click and collect instead, can help. Taking extra security measures can also help: more than half of all households have external light sensors (houses with external sensors and timers have proven to be an effective deterrent to burglaries).
“This type of crime is preventable,” says a spokesman for the National Council of Chiefs of Police. “Ask that your deliveries are directed to neighbors or trusted friends if you are not going to be at home. If this is not possible, try to reschedule for a time when you know you will be home.
“We are asking everyone to work together over the Christmas period and beyond, to stamp out this type of crime in our communities.”
A spokesperson from the DPD says: “We do not recognize the results from [the Citizens Advice] survey at all and raised significant concerns about the methodology… In contrast, another survey this month from consumer group Which? DPD gave a customer satisfaction score of 92 percent.”
Evri and Yodel were approached for comment.
