People living in an apartment block in Salford claim their parcels are being stolen within MINUTES of being delivered.
Residents at Adelphi Wharf claim to have suffered multiple delivery thefts over the last few months – ranging from expensive football boots to a birthday cake. One flat owner says the incidents have made her want to sell up and she no longer trusts other residents in her block.
Yu Chen, who lives in the second Adelphi Wharf building on Adelphi Street, almost had her food shopping stolen recently. “In other flat buildings I used to live in, I always said hello to my neighbours,” said.
“But I can’t do this in Adelphi Wharf, I can’t trust people I meet in this building because he/she might be the person who takes my food. Last week, one day before my birthday, the cake maker sent a cake to me by Uber Eats.
“I went down immediately but found no one there and the Uber driver said he delivered to someone from this building. The driver arrived at 16.38 and by 16.41 the cake was already stolen.
“It’s really annoying actually, I bought this flat so I can’t leave this building like other tenants. That makes me feel more sad. I almost lost another grocery shopping on June 1, luckily the driver checked the thief’s name and found he doesn’t know who booked that order.”
Ryan Bennett, who also lives in Adelphi Wharf block two, lost home office equipment sent to him by his employer to theft. “I have circulation issues with my legs and I work from home in a sitting-based job," he said. "It was a leg raiser that tilted to help my blood flow in my legs. I also just had some screen wipes and a mouse mat stolen, also sent from work.”
Another tenant, who did not wish to give his name, said he has been forced to have his parcels delivered to a nearby shop to avoid them being stolen. Speaking to the Manchester Evening News, the 27-year-old, who lives in Adelphi Wharf building one, said: “It’s very annoying not being able to have stuff delivered to you. I usually get them ordered to a friend's address or to the Co-op up the road.
“There have been signs put up saying don’t leave parcels but delivery drivers don’t seem to care. My guess is that people from the street tailgate delivery drivers and wait around the corner until they leave. Then they just gather a load of parcels and walk off.
“Some people have noted that in the five minutes it’s taken them to receive the ‘delivered’ notification and go downstairs, the parcels have been stolen already.” Another resident, who lives in Adelphi Wharf block three, had new £250 football boots stolen two months ago. “I always keep my tracking open throughout the day as I know there’s a parcel thief,” the 22-year-old said.
“When it said 'delivered', I went downstairs as soon as possible. When I got down there, it was gone. The building manager reviewed the CCTV and you could clearly see the parcel in the delivery man’s hand, however the camera isn’t angled towards the letterboxes so we only see him come in the building with it and leave without it, but we never see anybody enter the building to steal it.
“It led me to believe that the parcel thief lives within the premises and just goes around checking at the most popular delivery times and steals them that way. The other hundreds of pounds’ worth of valuables I’ve had stolen were a video game and some memory cards for cameras, which have previously been posted through my letterbox.
“But because of how big Amazon’s packaging is, they pop out the letter box slightly so I imagine someone also just pulled those out and stole them.”
In a statement Xenia Estates, the managing company for Adelphi Wharf, said: “Xenia Estates are aware of alleged thefts taking place at Adelphi Wharf blocks 1, 2 & 3. In response to this accusation Xenia Estates has taken a number of steps to identify the person responsible and maintain the safety of residents' belongings and parcels, these include; instructing for additional CCTV cameras to be installed which will be closely monitored by our out-of-hours service, notifying the Salford North East Neighbourhood Policing team who are investigating the matter and who have also installed signage within the building to remind residents to be vigilant and delivery companies to take care when leaving parcels in the communal entranceway.
“Additionally, we are working with Amazon to arrange for secure parcel lockers to be installed in one block. An update on which will be passed on to residents imminently once the final arrangements have been made.
“Finally, Xenia Estates are liaising with delivery companies and installing additional signage to ensure that going forward parcels are delivered to recipients’ apartments instead of within the foyer.”
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