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Muddlerminnow
·I’m fairly new to OF and watch collecting, but not so new to shipping valuable things like art and vintage fishing tackle—and recently had a pretty bad experience that I think is worth sharing, and which has a few important takeways for anyone shipping expensive things. Especially, now, during the merry season of porch and lobby thieves.
In my case, a gallery in Paris that I work with shipped two boxes of an art installation that is based on an archive of very rare fishing flies—and the archive includes correspondence, photographs, tying notes, materials charts, and so on—stuff that doesn’t look valuable—or even recognizable --as art. I spent four years working on this project. The value was many tens of thousands of dollars. While insurance and insurance values are important considerations, insurance doesn’t replace what was lost and is irreplaceable. A new watch can usually be replaced, for example, but not a one-of-a-kind vintage watch. The real issue is ensuring the packages arrive safely in the hands of the people to whom they are destined. Insurance and insurance claims require a different thread. This post is more about deliveries.
When Fed Ex arrived at my 30-unit condo building in Chicago, instead of taking the boxes to the mailroom, which is behind two locked doors, the Fed Ex deliveryman left them in the lobby inside the front door. Without getting a signature. Shortly later, when our USPS mailman exited the building, he did not realize he was being tracked--and someone slipped in the door he had opened--walked into the lobby, pulled his hoodie over his head, picked up the packages with the archive, exited the building, put them in his car parked out front, and drove on his merry way.
If you want to read more about the archive, you can here on fly-tying forum I frequent: https://www.sparsegreymatter.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=14219
CCTV captured it all.
The CCTV screenshots (via iPhone) below show the Fed Ex delivery, the perpetrator walking out with the same boxes, and exiting onto the street. To the police in Chicago, this is a petty matter--at least in the context of our astonishing crime and murder rates. But what bothers me, amid all the talk about 'porch thefts' is the fact that USPS and Fed Ex enabled this theft through their own carelessness and neglect: Fed Ex by not taking the packages to the mail room where they would be secure, and failing to get a signature; and USPS by letting a stranger into the building.
Some takeaways:
1) Fed Ex will sometimes say they have your signature “on file” and see no reason to ever ask again for a signature. Make sure this is not the case for you—insist on signatures at all times.
2) Follow the tracking carefully while your packages are moving through the system—don’t let a package sit for hours, let alone days—try to meet the delivery person if at all possible. The guy who stole my stuff had a refined routine—wait for mailman to go in building with packages, then enter when he exited. It was just his luck the Fed Ex guy had been there earlier with my packages and left them in the lobby.
3) Don’t expect the police to help much. In my case we have a lot of CCTV footage showing both the perpetrator, and his getaway car. With pretty basic computer enhancement technology his license plate could be made legible—but despite filing a police report and making clear I have all this evidence, the police are totally unmoved. Over 3500 people were shot in Chicago in 2017—that’s over 20 people per day—the energy goes there, not into package thieves, even when the theft is classifiable as a felony.
The real trick is to do everything you can to ensure you get your packages arrive in the hands intended. You don’t want to go through insurance nightmares, or ask the police for help—what are you going to do if you find your stolen stuff on e-Bay or Craig’s List? It’s dizzying just thinking about possible scenarios getting played out.
If anyone has suggestions for getting the police to act, I'm all ears. But as far as recovering the stuff is concerned--I'm afraid it's probably in a dumpster now. 🙁
mm
Fed Ex guy making delivery: the bottom two boxes are the archive. Instead of going through the locked second set of doors in the background, he left the packages on a bench beside them (note to Condo association board: remove bench).
Perpetrator making his move:
Perp's exit onto the street; his car is in the background:
In my case, a gallery in Paris that I work with shipped two boxes of an art installation that is based on an archive of very rare fishing flies—and the archive includes correspondence, photographs, tying notes, materials charts, and so on—stuff that doesn’t look valuable—or even recognizable --as art. I spent four years working on this project. The value was many tens of thousands of dollars. While insurance and insurance values are important considerations, insurance doesn’t replace what was lost and is irreplaceable. A new watch can usually be replaced, for example, but not a one-of-a-kind vintage watch. The real issue is ensuring the packages arrive safely in the hands of the people to whom they are destined. Insurance and insurance claims require a different thread. This post is more about deliveries.
When Fed Ex arrived at my 30-unit condo building in Chicago, instead of taking the boxes to the mailroom, which is behind two locked doors, the Fed Ex deliveryman left them in the lobby inside the front door. Without getting a signature. Shortly later, when our USPS mailman exited the building, he did not realize he was being tracked--and someone slipped in the door he had opened--walked into the lobby, pulled his hoodie over his head, picked up the packages with the archive, exited the building, put them in his car parked out front, and drove on his merry way.
If you want to read more about the archive, you can here on fly-tying forum I frequent: https://www.sparsegreymatter.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=14219
CCTV captured it all.
The CCTV screenshots (via iPhone) below show the Fed Ex delivery, the perpetrator walking out with the same boxes, and exiting onto the street. To the police in Chicago, this is a petty matter--at least in the context of our astonishing crime and murder rates. But what bothers me, amid all the talk about 'porch thefts' is the fact that USPS and Fed Ex enabled this theft through their own carelessness and neglect: Fed Ex by not taking the packages to the mail room where they would be secure, and failing to get a signature; and USPS by letting a stranger into the building.
Some takeaways:
1) Fed Ex will sometimes say they have your signature “on file” and see no reason to ever ask again for a signature. Make sure this is not the case for you—insist on signatures at all times.
2) Follow the tracking carefully while your packages are moving through the system—don’t let a package sit for hours, let alone days—try to meet the delivery person if at all possible. The guy who stole my stuff had a refined routine—wait for mailman to go in building with packages, then enter when he exited. It was just his luck the Fed Ex guy had been there earlier with my packages and left them in the lobby.
3) Don’t expect the police to help much. In my case we have a lot of CCTV footage showing both the perpetrator, and his getaway car. With pretty basic computer enhancement technology his license plate could be made legible—but despite filing a police report and making clear I have all this evidence, the police are totally unmoved. Over 3500 people were shot in Chicago in 2017—that’s over 20 people per day—the energy goes there, not into package thieves, even when the theft is classifiable as a felony.
The real trick is to do everything you can to ensure you get your packages arrive in the hands intended. You don’t want to go through insurance nightmares, or ask the police for help—what are you going to do if you find your stolen stuff on e-Bay or Craig’s List? It’s dizzying just thinking about possible scenarios getting played out.
If anyone has suggestions for getting the police to act, I'm all ears. But as far as recovering the stuff is concerned--I'm afraid it's probably in a dumpster now. 🙁
mm
Fed Ex guy making delivery: the bottom two boxes are the archive. Instead of going through the locked second set of doors in the background, he left the packages on a bench beside them (note to Condo association board: remove bench).
Perpetrator making his move:
Perp's exit onto the street; his car is in the background:
