A Raleigh man recently had a package of prescription medication stolen directly from his mailbox. | Pexels
A Raleigh man recently had a package of prescription medication stolen directly from his mailbox. | Pexels
No longer is package theft limited to porch pirates.
Today’s thieves are getting more brazen, actually sorting through mailboxes for easy pickings.
A Raleigh man noticed a mess near his mailbox one day last week. Later, he learned that someone had stolen some medication that had been mailed to him.
“When he came out, he found the packaging of the medication in the street,” Derrick Taylor, the man’s partner, told CBS17.com. “So he walked up the street and then down the street, he found it in two separate places, and that’s how we discovered someone had broken into the mailbox.”
Taylor suspects the theft happened between Thursday and Friday, and it left him surprised.
“I was taken aback because it’s such a busy street, and for someone to go between the time that we’re home and the time that we’re not, and we’re constantly in and out and watching things, for them to take it, it was a little disheartening,” he said.
The financial loss is one thing, but when it comes to certain types of prescriptions, getting it replaced can be a hassle.
The victim called the doctor and the drugstore in an effort to get a new prescription, but that required jumping through hoops, as he had to prove that he was not selling the drugs or giving them to friends.
Stealing mail is a federal crime, but this theft was never reported to police, according to CBS17.com, and chances are many other thefts have gone unreported, too.
Even with underreporting, Better Business Bureau of Eastern North Carolina Communications Specialist Meredith Radford said package theft occurs fairly frequently. In 2021, almost a quarter of Americans experienced some form of package theft, she said.
“It’s definitely growing, along with the growth of online marketplaces, and people relying more and more on package delivery to get products,” Radford told CBS17.com, adding that she recommends requiring a signature for packages, a locked mailbox or picking up your mail right away.
“I know that’s not the most convenient thing, but it’s the best way to ensure that you’re the one who gets the package in your hands, as opposed to it just sitting in your mailbox where it’s vulnerable,” she said, according to CBS17.com.
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