Shipping UPS? Think twice...

[AO River]

UPS Steals iPad Mini Delivered By FedEx - YouTube

UPS Steals iPad Mini Delivered By FedEx - YouTube

Covered by Houston’s local NBC affiliate KPRC

A UPS delivery man decided it would be a brilliant idea to steal an iPad Mini off the doorstep of a home in North Harris county. The Apple tablet had been delivered at the home of Al Alverson at 9:45 a.m. by a FedEx delivery man. Since Apple requires a signature on delivery, Alverson had left a pre-signed delivery form taped to the front of the house authorizing the driver to leave the package by the front door. Alverson had ordered the iPad Mini for his daughter as a Christmas present and wanted to make sure the tablet was delivered in time for the holiday.

Just before 2:00 p.m., an unnamed UPS delivery man arrived at Alverson’s home to deliver a package. The security camera mounted above Alverson’s front door captured video of the UPS delivery man taking a closer look at the FedEx package before ringing the doorbell and walking away.

After waiting a few minutes to see if anyone answered the door, the UPS delivery man returned and picked up the FedEx package. The UPS delivery man looked at the package for a moment pretending to check the label and walked back to his truck.

Alverson contacted UPS over the phone to complain about the theft, but felt like he was “getting the run around” by the people handling the claim according to an interview with KHOU News. After posting the video footage to YouTube and Vimeo on Wednesday night, Alverson was quickly visited by a local deputy as well as a UPS investigator on Thursday morning.

UPS officials easily tracked down the thief based off the delivery records and fired him immediately for stealing the tablet. According to UPS, the delivery man was hired as a seasonal employee to help with the increase in package volume during the holidays. A new iPad Mini was delivered to Alverson on late Thursday courtesy of UPS and he removed the video from both YouTube and Vimeo. However, several mirrors of the security footage have been posted online. According to KHOU News, the delivery man was arrested by the Harris County Sheriff’s Office and charged with theft.

[Brucey]

Not exactly sure you can blame a company with 1000's of employees for one kid acting up.

Guy was stupid and got what he deserved.

[AO River]

^ Very true. And with the plethora of seasonal employees UPS hires for the holidays, I'm sure the probablity of a bad apple is increased.

This instance happened to be caught on tape...but how many times does it happen without repercussions?

Most of my online orders come UPS and fortunately I've never had any issues. There is also a UPS/Amazon.com shipping center near me, so everything arrives earlier than expected.

Among UPS, FedEx and USPS, I'm sure they all have their share of employees issues..

[AO River]

I also read on the UPS Blog that they have around 102,000 drivers alone! So that doesn't even include their employees at sorting facilities, stores and headquarters. So you're right, 0.0009% incident rate is pretty good.