(HorizonPost.com) – A group of package thieves in Atlanta last weekend decided to skip stealing them off of front porches and instead went directly to the source, descending on an Amazon delivery truck and stealing the boxes out of the back while the driver was out delivering a package, the New York Post reported.
The Amazon delivery driver told police that she had left the van running as she went to deliver a package at an apartment complex in the Fairburn Mays area of Atlanta on Sunday afternoon when the thieves struck.
While she was away, at least four men ran up to the van and began stealing packages from the back.
A resident of the apartment complex captured the daytime theft on video showing the package thieves working at break-neck speed to retrieve boxes from the back of the van. The camera then pans to the Amazon driver who stands on the sidewalk watching the thieves ransack her van.
According to 11 Alive in Atlanta, it is unclear what items were taken in the daytime heist.
Police are working to identify the suspects.
Last December, CNBC reported that an estimated 260 million packages were stolen by thieves in 2022. In 2021, an estimated 210 million packages were stolen.
Consumer advocate Teresa Murray told CNBC that the increase in online shopping during the pandemic led to a marked rise in package thefts.
The estimated total annual loss from package thieves is around $19 billion, according to SafeWise.
Criminal Justice professor Ben Stickle from the University of Tennessee told CNBC that the rise in package thefts is unsurprising since it is a crime that requires little to no skill and is “very low risk.” All that is required, Stickle said, it to “walk up and steal a package.”
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