I live in an apartment complex with central mail boxes. Co-located with our individual mail boxes, are several large locking parcel boxes for any packages that are too big for the normal boxes. Normally what happens is the USPS person puts the parcel(s) in one of the large boxes, locks it, and puts the key in our individual box, thereby letting us know that we have a parcel.
Well, twice this year, I've had multiple parcels delivered to me and placed in a large parcel box, but the key wasn't put in my individual mail box; therefore, there was no way for me to know the items were there. To make matters worse, the key was left in the (unlocked) parcel box both times. So basically, my items (all cards bought off ebay) were left unsecured and available for anyone to come by and grab. In the first case, five separate packages had been sitting unsecured in the unlocked box for three days.
The only way I found out the items were there, was that in each case, I had been sent the USPS tracking number for at least one of the items, and went to the USPS website and saw that their system showed the item as having been delivered. Knowing that I hadn't received them, I went back to the boxes and opened all the unlocked large boxes until I found my packages sitting there.
Now, people here think I'm some nosy SOB when I get my mail each day, since I've gotten into the habit of opening all the unlocked parcel boxes just to make sure nothing is sitting there.
Steve
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