Amazon parcel thief caught on camera stealing in Reading

[TrueBlueTerrier]

https://www.readingchronicle.co.uk/news ... g-reading/

A resident caught on camera the moment a thief decided to snatch the Amazon parcel from his doorstep in Whitley Wood, Reading.

The footage, recorded by the resident’s private surveillance camera on Tuesday evening last week (June 3), shows a cyclist rolling into the driveway and approaching the house, wearing dark clothing and a baseball cap with their face obscured.

The cyclist briefly disappears from view before re-entering the video frame, now with a parcel in their right hand, and quickly swerves back onto the road.

The resident said he was surprised by the theft as he had only minutes before been notified of the parcel’s arrival: “If [the thief] had arrived 10 minutes later, he would have caught me [at the door]!”

Puzzled, the resident checked his camera footage and claims he discovered the parcel had been delivered more than an hour before, but that the delivery driver had not rung the bell and did not send the delivery notification until later.

The resident did not report the incident to police as luckily the parcel only contained a pair of fence painting brushes worth £7 and he has received a refund from Amazon.

He mused that the thief, probably at first pleased with themselves, “must have felt like an idiot” upon discovering what they had stolen.

He said: “I’m sure he got the shock of his life when he opened it and saw two little red brushes. I was hoping he would come back and paint my fence!”

The “sad thing”, the resident added, is that he now feels the need to warn people against sending anything directly to the house.

He has started using a local collection point instead.

Thames Valley Police suggest several different ways to help reduce the risk of losing deliveries to theft, such as parcel tracking and installing prevention aids like video doorbells and security lights.