Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Public urged to report parcel theft as it becomes a ward priority for local police
As a follow up to my post on parcel theft, the police are urging the public to report theft of parcels to enable them to put more resources towards it.
It is likely to be an under-reported crime as companies generally refund for undelivered goods but the police has 12 reports in January from addresses from Fairfax to Duckett, as well as local reports of thieves following delivery vans, including one on a bike with a back pack.
Report theft via this website or by calling 101 for a non-emergency.
Tags for Forum Posts: doorstep theft, parcel theft
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson
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While I welcome this delivery companies have play their part too. I think that many of us have found parcels on the doorstep when we are actually at home and the bell just hasn’t been rung. While it easy to blame the delivery person they are sometimes set unrealistic delivery targets that can only be achieved with a ‘drop and run’ approach.
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Permalink Reply by Justin Guest
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This is (a) not going to happen- let’s be honest after doing battle with the supplying company we have lost enough of our life that we will not get back again and we often have barely the will to live let alone put a report into the police and (b) this is exactly my point in your thread Liz that this additional shifting of the cost of doing business such that it acts as a drain on fragile public services it is totally inappropriate. If the delivery companies did their job properly (and were paid appropriately to do so) this would not even be an issue.
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Permalink Reply by Liz
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Well, twelve people felt strongly enough to do it last month. The action I took after being robbed was to cancel my delivery and explain that if they were going to leave goods in the garden and not even inform me until later in the morning then I was forced to stop being a customer of theirs (they used to ring the bell and wait until I took the goods). Let’s face it, it’s Amazon delivery we are talking about here (and Evri) and they couldn’t give two hoots as they can easily absorb the cost of refunding. Is anyone going to be sufficiently cross to stop using Amazon and start going to the shops? I doubt it as it’s just too easy and convenient to open the app.
I suspect the police are interested as this type of crime is often linked to other crimes. I doubt very much that the only thing the thieves do is steal parcels. Just as for example cracking blue badge theft can lead to bigger fish, or grabbing people buying drugs in the Passage can lead them to picking up people with a warrant out for their arrest (as happened recently), so it’s likely that catching parcel thieves could lead them to more serious crime, after all the thieves aren’t nicking all this stuff for themselves but need to move it on, probably via car boot sales etc. The trade in stolen tools for example is worth an eye-watering amount, money which probably then goes on to finance other crime. Moreover, the police set ward priorities and if this is what people are complaining about, this is what they will focus on. Other crime including burglary is down in the ward this month, but this is up and it’s still theft whether we blame the delivery companies or not.
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I do not disagree with much of what you say Liz, nor the sentiment, but unless the police have evidence (footage) or catch someone in the act... Well.
I do get this is part of a bigger issue around drugs use (my opinion, in case Alan Stanton is listening in! I have no empirical evidence of this, to show causation). That is the nut that needs cracking.
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Police set targets including where and when they patrol based on the data they receive from crime reports.
It's likely that they will focus on the times of day when the Amazon/Evri van is about as its often around the same time most days and will keep an eye out when they see it. Police are asking for footage from doorbell cams etc, although I expect, like the phone thieves, they wear face coverings but, nevertheless, the police can get a good idea of where and when these people might be lurking.
The police were extremely helpful after we started getting some fairly blatant aggressive ASB outside our house not so long back and they did arrest a couple of people and stop the worst of it (it gets moved on I know but still its good for the criminals to know that people aren't turning a blind eye to it).
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I fully understand why you’re not overly confident in this kind of crime being dealt with but unless we report it ,it doesn’t show up as an issue except anecdotally.
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