My brother-in-law is receiving packages of items that he did not order, he’s not billed for, and there’s no clue who is sending them. Help me solve this mystery.
The tale starts with my BIL buying a moderately priced drone to play around with. Being too eager to try it out, he flew it for the first time on a windy day and it was blown into some nearby woods and lost. He searched for days but never found it.
A couple weeks later, a package arrives at his door. It’s a replacement drone. The exact same model, brand new. He hadn’t ordered one and neither did his wife.
His wife/my sister called to thank me for sending the gift but asked how I knew exactly what model to get, as I had never seen the drone or talked to the BIL about it.
She assumed that I sent it because I’m the only person in our families and her circle of friends who could afford to just send a gift like that for no reason, and it’s the kind of thing I might do if I had known about him losing the drone. But I didn’t send it. She thought I was just being coy and wanted to remain anonymous, and I couldn’t convince her otherwise.
A few weeks later he gets another package. This time it’s a bobblehead-type doll of Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy. He’s a 50-year-old man who doesn’t read comic books and had no idea who Groot was. Once again my sister calls and tries to make me confess to sending these gifts.
The next one was a book about trains. My BIL is very into old machinery, tractors, etc. and he has a nice collection of old metal toys, including trains. My sister calls again. I deny any involvement.
I told my sister to contact whatever company name is on the shipping label to trace the origin, but she said she tried that and didn’t get anywhere with customer service.
So, anyone have a theory? FWIW, my BIL does not live next door to Boo Radley.
Are they actually addressed to him?
And are they all coming from the same company?
Yes, addressed to him. Don’t think they’re from the same company.
Hmm…on the nefarious side, maybe someone’s trying to set him up as a patsy for identity fraud?
He’s ordering them himself without his wife’s knowledge and feigning ignorance, would be my first guess.
Most likely. The replacement drone is very suspicious.
Are they all coming from inside the house? 
This. It sounds like he probably ordered the drone replacement when he shouldn’t have, and the remainder are a cover-up so that his first bit I’d duplicity won’t be detected.
Some years ago, a local company had a promotion where, if you sent in so many coupons from their packaging, you could get a free basketball. I was using their product anyway, so I had plenty of coupons, but I wasn’t interested in basketballs.
So…the guy at the next desk to me at work, started mysteriously receiving basketballs. (He was a friend, or I wouldn’t have picked him.) He got four or five by the time the promotion ended.
Six months or so later, I finally, very casually, hinted that I was the guilty one. It took him a while to catch on, but when he finally got it, he had to excitedly call his wife to say that he’d solved the mystery. He didn’t hit me, though. 
:dubious:
If that turns out to be the case, what else is he lying to his wife about? 
I like this story. It vaguely reminds me of the thread, years ago, about the mysterious piano that appeared in my house (it eventually turned out to have a somewhat mundane explanation, but not before much fun was had).
Please keep us posted.
Another theory is that his wife is the prankster. She would know which drone to get, right? Perhaps when she saw his wonderment at the replacement, she decided to continue the joke. That assumes that the family finances can withstand the costs, however, and that she can find a way to pay for the goods without him seeing evidence.
ETA: And she is calling the OP, pseudo-mystified, to make herself look innocent. How good an actress is she?
Drone, Groot, trains… DGT! The Directorate-General for Translation!
But also “Don’t Go There”… it seems that our mystery mailer is taunting us!
We’ll find our next clue in Luxembourg! Come on, gang, we have a plane to catch!
Perhaps the “lost” drone is lonely and is ordering companions. Dundundun.
This is wonderful (and a bit evil too 
). I have two close friends that just might get enrolled in the ball of the month club. 
. They are sisters. Oh the finger pointing that will ensue.
Last fall I had a mystery jar of “cookie butter” show up at my address. I called the company, which I had never even heard of, and they said it had been ordered on my credit card, but no charge ever showed up on my card. Yes, I immediately canceled that card.
I still haven’t opened the cookie butter.
Well, the idea of him replacing his drone, lying about it, and then covering with other mysterious deliveries seems reasonable from an objective standpoint. But from knowing the guy pretty well, I don’t think so.
And I don’t believe my sister did it and is pretending to be unaware. Again, just because I know her well and it’s not in her nature to pull a trick like this, especially something elaborate. And the money is just not available either.
I could be wrong, of course, but they both seem genuinely perplexed. My best theory was that he has some sort of secret admirer (teenage girl down the street? lonely grandmother in the neighborhood?) who’s sending him gifts. Still kind of strange about knowing the model of the drone, but I suppose he could have mentioned it or shown it to someone.
He’s the kind of guy who spends a lot of time helping out people in the neighborhood with yard work, doing things for old people, etc. so it’s plausible that someone is ordering stuff off QVC for him as a thank you gesture.
Will update you when the next gift arrives.
The aliens from Childhood’s End are coming…
Watch out for stuffed whales.
Awhile back I was putting away groceries from a supermarket run, when I noticed some items in one of the bags that I hadn’t purchased - including a giant container of artificial coffee creamer, and an extended family-sized tub of imitation spreadable butter substitute.
Either the store was surreptitiously trying to earn my loyalty by giving out bonus items*, or the cashier was trying to kill me with this horrible ersatz glop (the pseudo-butter got trashed, and I donated the creamer to the break room at work).
*if this was the case, a nice steak would have been appreciated instead.
**realizing that these mystery items were probably left over from another customer’s order, I wonder what other dreck was in his cart. A gallon of .0005% milk to go with his cartons of Froot Loops? A ten-gallon bucket of Velveeta? A gross of store-brand economy condoms?
I’ve been mysteriously getting free magazines for a few years now. Turns out a friend got some coupons for free magazine subscriptions and sent several to my house.
Perhaps this is a similar situation, only with the “Loot Crate”, “Bespoke Post” and other “random boxes of crap delivered monthly” businesses? The secret admirer theory is looking pretty likely right now.