Yes.
The worst is Kickstarter (yes, I still do occasionally fund things on kickstarter) where stuff can show up months later without warning from random non-US addresses.
There’s also the late night Amazon stuff.
Those that said “No, of course not” what would you do with the package?
I’d probably open it if it was addressed to me. I could see myself ordering something online and forgetting about it.
From Wikipedia:
Kaczynski’s first mail bomb was directed at Buckley Crist, a professor of materials engineering at Northwestern University. On May 25, 1978, a package bearing Crist’s return address was found in a parking lot at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The package was “returned” to Crist who was suspicious because he had not sent the package, so he contacted campus police. Officer Terry Marker opened the package, which exploded and injured his left hand.
I was on campus at Univ of Illinois at Chicago that day.
I worry about letter or package bombs at about the same rate as car bombs: zero.
Half the joy of ordering from AliExpress is getting your stuff four months after you’ve forgotten you ever ordered it. It’s like random Christmas!
I can’t imagine any earthly reason why someone would want to send me a malicious package so my curiosity would win within minutes.
After 911, we were trained to look for sketchy packaging at the place we worked at. The only time we got a suspicious package was an envelope full of mysterious powder which turned out to be corn starch. It’s been more than a decade since 911 and Ted’s box of polemic surprises. I mean, who looks for suspicious letters and packages now?
A few years ago, an expected package arrived. I had ordered some peripheral computer equipment, but wondered why they would invest in so much packaging and damn, it sure was heavy and big. It arrived with my name and my address from Best Buy.
Opened it up and it was an all-in-one-computer (a touch-screen monitor with a built-in computer). Was this some kind of bonus gift included by Best Buy? Where’s the peripheral equipment? No where to be found. Hmm, well this was unexpected It’s obvious that this was misaddressed to me.
So I dig inside the box and find an invoice with the name of the addressee and a phone number. Last name was of Chinese origin. So I called the number and informed her that I had received a package with my name and address affixed on the box. She was strangely suspicious and evasive, and almost contemptuous of who I was. And her language skills suggested to me that English was her second language. It took a few minutes to convince the person that I was for real, that the computer belonged to her, and being a nice guy wanted to help out and make things right. She continues with the hostility in her voice.
(Exasperation was becoming apparent in my voice–who would argue about someone going out of their way to return something?).
I told her I’d drop it off at the UPS if she would pay for the shipping. She hesitated until I told her that by law I could keep it since it was sent to my address with my name on the package (and I pix to prove it, for damaged package/insurance reasons). She said would call back with a shipping number for UPS drop-off. A few hours later she called and I thanked her for following through. She didn’t thank me. (“Must be a cultural thing?”, I thought) Sent it off and that was the end of that and I forgot about it even though I was really confused about her attitude–it made no sense.
A few years later, cleaning out old paper records, I found a scrap of paper with the computer manufacturer and model number, so I decided to Google it. I figured it was likely used for industrial processes like an oil refinery or security monitoring of a military base,
I found that gambling (poker) was the biggest use of this particular model and further investigation showed quite a few were used for illegal purposes.
Hmm…did I stumble into an illegal gambling scheme after-the-fact and the lady thought I was a narc?
The next time something like this shows up, I’ll let UPS/FedEx handle it.
I got socks.
I would say it’s Best Buy’s problem. They mis-shipped it, not FedEx/UPS. FedEx/UPS have to ship it to the address on the label.
Yeah, that crossed my mind after I posted my story above. You’re right, it was Best Buy’s problem. Good deeds never go unpunished.
There have had misdeliveries of packages to my address or someone else in the past. I’ve never had a misdelivery before 3 pm. Rather, they have always occur during the end of the day 6 to 8 pm, which would make sense as it’s the end of shift, the driver is tired, similar street names, identical house numbers, etc., so that’s why I assumed this was a shipping problem and took the road less traveled by to resolve it. But I’ve always received my packages, no porch pirating so far.