LANCASTER – Some Antelope Valley residents are seeing package thefts being taken to a whole new level this holiday season.
Thieves are increasing their window of opportunity – not by targeting empty houses, but by following delivery trucks around the neighborhood and snatching packages as soon as the drop is made.
Julio Barrios, a Neighborhood Watch captain for Lancaster’s westside community, provided The AV Times with a video clip showing a suspect racing to a resident’s front porch to steal a package only seconds after the package was dropped off by a FedEx delivery truck on Monday, Dec. 7.
A police report has already been filed, Barrios said. He wants to warn local residents to guard against these package thefts, which he says are happening quicker and at a much more aggressive rate.
Marcelle Girgis, the Lancaster resident victimized by the theft, said she saw the FedEx delivery person drop off the package from her computer-surveillance system. But when she went outside to retrieve her package 20 seconds later, it was gone.
“Usually I go to the computer to see who’s there,” Girgis said. “I saw that it was the FedEx person, and so I went out to get the package. But as soon as I went out, there was no package at all. It was that fast.”
Girgis said her neighbor immediately called out to her and informed her that a young male suspect grabbed the package immediately after the FedEx delivery person placed it on the porch.
“What I believe is that guy followed the FedEx truck,” Girgis said. “When I reviewed my video surveillance, he showed up exactly 20 seconds after FedEx had left. Here I am at home and I don’t have enough time to grab my own package. It’s unbelievable.”
Girgis plans to widen her video surveillance to show street activity in hopes of capturing vehicle descriptions and other identifying information, should this happen again.
![[contributed image from alleged theft on Dec. 2]](https://www.theavtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/alleged-AV-package-thief-12.2.jpg)
Lancaster resident J. Elizondo told The AV Times that her packages were stolen around 2:25 p.m.
“A UPS truck delivered packages to my front door and someone pulled into my driveway and took my packages off the doorstep,” Elizondo said.
Elizondo has filed a police report, and she captured the incident on surveillance video. She is hoping to “make this story public to help law enforcement catch the perpetrator.”
Readers who recognize the suspect in her video [see below] are asked to call the Lancaster Sheriff’s Station to bring this alleged thief to justice.
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Palmdale to residents: Beware of package thieves this holiday season!
The city of Palmdale on Thursday urged residents to be aware of package thieves targeting deliveries to homes from UPS, FedEx and other courier services.
Palmdale Crime Prevention Officer Ruth Oschmann said it’s important to know “there are some grinches out there who may take [packages] right from your doorstep,” especially with the increase of online shopping for the holiday season.
“Thieves sometimes follow delivery trucks around, and when a package gets dropped off – they swoop in a few minutes later and swipe it,” said Crime Prevention Officer Kery German.
Palmdale officials advised local residents to take the following precautions to avoid becoming a victim:
- If possible, require a signature on all package deliveries.
- Write specific instructions for the delivery company on where to leave your package, for example, behind the fence or the side of the garage. UPS drivers can enter that information into their handheld computers for future deliveries.
- Have your package delivered to your work address or neighbor or relative who will be home to accept the package immediately.
- FedEx also allows you to redirect a package to another address if you know you won’t be home at the time of delivery.
According to Oschmann, if a resident experiences a package theft, they should file a police report and call the shipper immediately.
“Unless you insured your package, you may be out of luck getting reimbursed,” Oschmann said. “That is why it is so important to take the precautions we’ve suggested to ensure safe delivery.
The U.S. Postal Service is also concerned with mail and package thefts during the holiday season. Postal authorities are asking residents to report suspected theft immediately to their local postmaster or nearest Postal Inspector. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service can be reached at 877-876-2455.
Postal customers are encouraged to file a formal complaint using PS Form 2016, Mail Theft and Vandalism Complaint, which is available on the U.S. Postal Inspection website at https://postalinspectors.uspis.gov.
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About the author
Jim Winburn is a Los Angeles area news writer. –
Tm says
It’s very sad that a package can’t be delivered and safe without the fear of it being stolen….package swiping has become more common these days and its sad that it comes down to this….no a nger can we leave our doors unlocked.. Windows cracked,or packages at the door.This generation of young adults are disrespectful…. UN grateful..have no common sense…uneducated, jobless.etc..So now they depend on everyone else for their well being…Its easy get an education and job and pay for it instead of relying on others to do it for them….idiots..hope they get caught
A Young Adult says
I’m in the “generation of young adults” you’re talking about, and I’m worried that my packages will get stolen. My husband and I are both under 30 and are worried about the same things you’re worried about. We’re educated (both have four-year degrees), have jobs (one of us works at Edwards and the other at Plant 42), and own our house. We don’t depend on anyone else for our well-being.
It’s not nice to generalize, Tm. Especially when your comment makes you look like you “have no common sense” and are “uneducated.”
Tim Scott says
No worries, Young Adult. Tm, like many posters here, makes these sweeping judgements and isolates themselves in their imagined superiority, but it only shows their ignorance of reality and doesn’t say anything about you.
Carla says
The only ones to blame are the thieves!
Tina says
Years ago UPS required a signature for your pkg. If no one was their to sign for it, it would go back to the shop and you would have to pick it up. Same with USPS, no signature needed but you had to be home to get it, or it was taken back, and you would have to pick it up. Why are these delivery co’s being so lax in their service ? My recent deliveries were left at the door, no knock, or doorbell rung ! Hello…….
Tim Scott says
The postal service did the “leave a notice” thing, and for all I know they still do. But I wouldn’t call that a service, based on the times I had to make my way to the post office during their hours that always coincided with my own working hours, usually to be told at least once “oh it must be on the truck for redelivery,” which never seemed to actually happen either.
I don’t think that UPS ever did that. I worked as a Christmas temp for UPS more than twenty years ago, and they didn’t take packages back to the shop for pickup then. If no one was there to sign for it we made a note on the sheet as to where we left it, in three words or less. “Behind planter,” “under bench,” “by rosebush,” something that fit in the signature block. The only packages we brought back at the end of the route were CODs.
SANTASHELPER says
It’s up to the shipper to make it signature required or not, not the delivery company.
Sarah says
The drivers aren’t to blame. They are doing their jobs. The thieves are the ones in the wrong.
Tina says
They have been leaving things and do not ring the doorbell. Just drop it and go.
Some things I have found there by luck. And I am home. If they would just ring the bell it would be nice.
J says
Driver’s around here just drop off the package bang on the door and take off. Sometimes they don’t even bang on the door…I think UPS and Fed Ex are partly to blame because they do not have their drivers take a few seconds to actually hand the package to the person receiving it. I delivered flowers for years and we never just left things on somebodies doorstep unless that was what they wanted. Whatever happened to leaving a notice on your door that they tried to deliver but nobody was home. That is how we did it. We left the phone # for the person to call and make arrangements to either pick up their flowers or leave an address where they could be delivered. It seems these days everybody is in such a hurry and nobody cares about giving good customer service.
FedEx wife says
Christmas time is the worst time for drivers they don’t have time to wait around for everyone sweet time. Drivers are leaving with 100-150 stops daily money or time isn’t enough to wait upon everyone’s time they got a hundred other places to go…. If I know I order something then I make sure I’m home and don’t go anywhere else so I’m ready to receive my packages. IF YOUR NOT HOME CALL FEDEX OR UPS AND MAKE IT SIGNATUTE REQUIRED SO YOU CANT GET IT UNTIL YOU SIGNED IT
Tim Scott says
Their rates are based on the way they deliver. The customer base in this regard, as in most, demands “lowest price before all else.” If a company started doing as you suggest, and charged a rate based on the greatly reduced number of deliveries per manhour they could perform, no one would pay for their service and they would fold.
SANTASHELPER says
My drivers are going out with over 200 stops a day. There’s not enough hours/minutes in a day to wait for everyone to answer their doors. If it’s not a signature required, they have to ring, drop and go. If they waited for everyone to answer they’d never get their route done and then we’d have hundreds of calls saying no one delivered their packages. You can’t please all the people all the time. Blame the big corporation’s (Fed Ex, UPS, etc.) execs for taking on more accounts than they can handle. The workforce isn’t ever prepared for the #’s they end up pushing through. Also, on a regular basis during the Christmas season the management doesn’t even get the freight unloaded off the big rigs for the drivers to load up their trucks until very late. I have guys going out with over 200 stops and not even being able to leave the station until after 10 am. Try doing that many stops at that start time and wait on everyone to hand them their packages. Impossible.
It's Christmas Time says
The station I work from does not allow us to leave notices for customers to pick up parcels unless the live more than a mile from our normal route, no matter how huge a parcel may be. The supervisor said that some of the senders, especially, Amazon, do not want their customers to have to retrieve their parcels from the post office. I felt much more comfortable when I could leave the notice when I felt it was not secure to leave the parcel at the door. The customer could request that I bring it to them or a neighbor the next day or they could get it from the office. Some days we have up to 400 parcel deliveries. I do ring the bell but I can not wait for the customers to answer. FedEx wife….people will never understand until they run in our shoes.
Irritated says
What happens when the delivery driver himself is the thief? Happened to me recently I might add!