Amazon customer is trapped in her own home when delivery driver leaves parcel jammed under her front door handle

[TrueBlueTerrier]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... andle.html

An Amazon customer found herself trapped in her own home after a delivery driver left her parcel jammed under her front door handle.

Rhiannon Smith, 31, from Haywards Heath, West Sussex, had ordered a £89.99 heated clothes dryer from the speedy online shop.

But after the package was signed off and delivered to her doorstep by a DPD courier, she found herself sealed in her own house.

While she changed upstairs, they had shoved the massive box containing the bulky electrical item right up against her door - leaving no room to push the handle down.

By the time the homeowner headed to take the parcel inside, the driver had already scarpered.

Ms Smith lives alone so had no one with her to help - and she also does not have a back door so there were no alternative escape routes.

After about 20 minutes stuck inside, she realised she had little choice but to climb out a downstairs window to escape, jumping the few feet to the ground below.

'I heard the doorbell go from upstairs and I was down in seconds,' Ms Smith said.

'I could see the box under the handle through the window and I thought, "Oh no, I'm not going to get out here".

'I tried unlocking it and moving the handle but it was fully stuck. I phoned my dad and he said I'd have to climb out of the window.

'The window was deceivingly high and I'm only five foot. There were lots of spiders as well.'

The resident reported it to Amazon last Friday, who said 'they'd escalate it and contact the driver to make sure it doesn't happen again', she explained.

But she pointed out it was lucky she was physically able to get herself out of the sticky situation.

'I'm healthy and have friends and family around so I knew I'd be fine but if that was someone elderly, it could have been really bad,' she said.

'[The driver] will have lent it against the door and not realised. Then they rushed off because they've got loads of deliveries to do.'

Ms Smith filmed her ordeal and put the clip on social media where it has racked up a whopping more than 340,000 views.

In the viral video posted to TikTok, she fumed, laughing incredulously: 'What's the dumbest thing your delivery driver has done? Because I think I can top it.

'I've ordered myself a heated clothes airer. He's left it under my fr***ing door handle so I can't open my front door now.

'I'm literally quite stuck in my house. I don't have a back door, this is my only exit.

'Who does this? Now what? I live alone. How am I supposed to get that off? I'm baffled. That was just stupid.'

Viewers rushed to the comments section to make a host of weird and wonderful suggestions about how to break free.

One proposed she 'order a pizza and get the delivery man to move it' - while another advised the homeowner to 'push the box with a stick through the letter box'.

Meanwhile, others shared their own horror stories, with one writing: 'Delivery driver did that with my daughter but it was a large TV.

'Could have been very expensive if she'd managed to get the door open.'

Another added: 'Oh my God, this happened to me when I was living alone during Covid.

'Dad turns up with ladders in case I need to escape over the balcony - nope, just stuck under the freaking door handle.'

Someone else had similar concerns to Ms Smith: 'What if you were a weak person or in a wheelchair?

'It could be heavy or you might be alone for hours - but what if a fire started? It's dangerous to leave it like that.'

In a second instalment posted to her account, the resident depicted her escape: 'It's lucky I've got a fr***ing window to climb out of.

'If this was an old lady and she got locked in here... honestly!'

The clip sees her climb on a chair before moving to crouch on the window sill, where she hesitates, looking slightly nervous about the jump to the ground below.

But luckily, she eventually manages to rescue her parcel and bring it inside, exclaiming: 'Stupid idiot!'

Amazon and DPD have been approached for comment.