I sent my package to the post office. It went from my hand to the USPS. It should be under the care (?) or a least, in the “hands” of someone at USPS all the time until it arrives to the destination. And from there, it should be picked up only by those named in the package (my parents).
My parents did not receive my package within the time it should have arrived, considering it was sent priority mail. It arrived a week later, with other tapes I hadn’t put, and with contents that were not the ones I sent.
The same thing happened to my sister.
If you want to nitpick, it wasn’t USPS as an organization, but certainly someone (or more than one) who works with the USPS has tampered with my mail, when they shouldn’t have (isn’t it a federal crime?).
Did it go through Customs, ie International (you mentioned stuff from Brazil). Or, was it left at your parents door in which case a neighbor may have messed with it? In that case, it is the USPS’s responsibilty, but hardly a criminal action on their part.
My UPS guy drops the packages at the door with filled-out “we missed you” sticker already in hand, leaves the package, then runs back to his truck and drives away. He doesn’t knock or ring the bell at all.
How do I know? Because two times I was working from home, heard someone on the stairs and looked out, (which I always do - it’s obvious that means someone is coming to the door), and saw him from my window walking away before I could even get out of my desk chair.
The third time I was on the porch reading a book and saw his whole schtick. I cleared my throat and said “excuse me?” and he was quite startled and still kept walking back to his truck. I had to say it again and ask him to stop so I could sign and receive my package. The note was already on the door, and he didn’t even have the package on him - it was still in his truck. I was so shocked that I didn’t have the sense to bitch him out.
My FedEx guy is awesome - he knocks on the door and rings the bell, waits a reasonable amount of time, and even brings cat treats for the stray cat that lives on my porch. He’s finally gotten the stray to accept scratches from him, to his delight.
It went through airplane, but not through customs. I sent the stuff, which I got from Brazil, from mainland United States. IOW, my package was a simple rare gift. My sister’s DVDs were also sent from mainland US.
My parents live in an apartment building. When they get a package that doesn’t fit the mailbox, they get a slip of paper telling them to go pick up the package at the post office.
I have heard of eBay sellers (and even buyers) very rarely trying the old “shipping something else but with the same weight” scam, but what you are trying to tell us is that out of the zillions of packages mailed every day, your innocuos package was picked out by a postal worker, who opened it and replaced the goods inside with something else? Why not just steal the goods, or the whole box? And, it happened twice.
I would assume it was the postal worker doing the deliveries. At that level, there aren’t nearly that many packages to have to rummage through. And I have known postal workers that steal.
Also, replacing the item increases the chance that no one will catch on to what they are doing. I mean, a package still got delivered, right?
Also, are you sure it goes back to the P.O., and not to some sort of front office for storage? That would be even less packages to go through. Or maybe the packages that wait at the post office are the only one the thief has access to. I know that the people who work at my post office are about to be out of a job anyways, as they are shutting down the entire thing due to lack of revenue. Even if it’s just downsizing where you are, the thief could not really care about how much longer they are employed.
Yes, it has happened to my parents twice. And yes, we think it is as bizarre as stupid as you think it is.
Our bet is that it was not the respective local post offices, but the centers/sorting facilities the mail went through before reaching destination. You know, the kind of sorting places where UPS, FedEx, and DHL track down the packages.
In the case of what I sent, there was some malicious thinking going on, too. My family is from Puerto Rico. I had a letter addressed to them (with the gifts in the box) written in Spanish. You know what they replaced all of that? A Spanish-English dictionary and a can of chili.
We do not think it was someone local to my parents’ simply because the items being swapped are brands not found in their area.
At our new place, the building vestibule can only be opened with a key, so we have found that USPS and UPS both just leave the freaking packages out in the open on our front doorstep, completely exposed to the street and the elements. Fedex was a bit better - the shipper of our item (an expensive Persian rug) had refrained from requiring signature or declaring the value, so when I got notification that the package had been delivered although nobody was home to sign for it (we had planned on having to go pick it up at the depot anyway), I called and begged them to have the driver go pick it up - at least they’d left it on the back porch, which isn’t quite so visible form the alley as the front porch is visible to the street.
Fedex was very helpful and apologetic, saying that if they’d known what the package was worth, they never would have left it unattended, regardless of what the shipper had indicated. The shipper (Overstock.com) refused to accept responsibility at all, and refused to guarantee that they would ship future packages signature required.
I’ve had UPS lie to me so many times about whether they even tried ringing the doorbell (and had to make so many 45-mile round-trips to their depot as a result) that I simply refuse to use them any more whenever I have any choice in the matter.