A courier has been caught on camera walking away with a parcel – after taking a photo of it on a customer’s doorstep to let her know it had ‘arrived’.
Melanie Hawkins was expecting two deliveries at her ex-boyfriend’s address in Portsmouth on Saturday.
She said she had been waiting on goods from George at Asda, as well as a £60 package of clothing from Shein.
After receiving confirmation from Evri, Melanie popped in to pick up her packages but noticed the parcel of clothes was missing.
Melanie was then even more shocked when she saw CCTV footage showing that her delivery driver wandered in with the goods, then taken off with one package in hand.
In the video, the courier is seen bringing two parcels and a cardboard box through the front gate and up to the doorstep.
He places the cardboard box on the doorstep and then briefly places one of the packages on the ground – taking a photograph of it for confirmation purposes.
However, he is then seen picking up the package again, tucking it under his arm and walking away with it.
Melanie Hawkins was expecting two deliveries to her ex-boyfriend’s address in Portsmouth on Saturday – but only one was left by a courier (pictured)
A delivery driver was spotted placing a cardboard box and one of the packages on the doorstep before snapping a pic
The courier then picks the package back up and takes it back out of the garden with him
Melanie told MailOnline: ‘I had a delivery notification come through in the afternoon at around 3.30pm on Saturday.
‘I live in a flat and there is nowhere for the driver to leave it, so I had it sent to my ex-boyfriend’s house.
‘I messaged the neighbour and asked if she could put the parcel in her porch and told her I would come and collect them the next morning.
‘When I went round on Sunday, there was only one of the two parcels. We went outside to have a look for it but we could not find it anywhere.’
Melanie said the neighbour then remembered she had a security camera placed on the windowsill of her front room.
The pair went through the footage, where they discovered that the package had been taken back from the doorstep by the driver.
‘We couldn’t believe it,’ Melanie said, ‘we were not expecting it to be the driver.’
‘We both gasped.’
Melanie received a delivery confirmation from Evri with a picture of the parcel and cardboard box on the doorstep
After reviewing the camera footage, she contacted Evri through the company’s online chat service.
She said: ‘I wasn’t able to speak to a person, I had to use the online chat. I told them that my driver had taken the photograph and then taken the parcel back with him. I said I class that as stealing.
‘It would not let me attach the video as evidence, but I attached it as a reply when I received a confirmation email.’
After being contacted by MailOnline, Evri today told Melanie they had located her package.
A spokesperson for Evri said: ‘We have a zero-tolerance approach to theft in our network and take any allegations of this very seriously. We are investigating this as a priority and are in contact with the customer, Melanie, to ensure that this is appropriately resolved for them.’
Last week an Evri driver was sacked after a shocking video showed him tossing a fragile parcel 15 feet over a fence with such force that it smashed a customer’s lava lamp to pieces.
Jim Cameron, 54, was left fuming after reviewing CCTV footage on February 9, trying to figure out how a returned item was damaged.
Startling footage shows the driver crouching down to seemingly build momentum then launching the cardboard box, which is said to have tape with ‘fragile’ written on it, ’15 feet’ into the air.
An Evri driver has been fired after a shocking video showed him tossing a fragile parcel 15 feet over a fence with such force that it smashed a customer’s lava lamp to pieces
Startling footage shows the driver crouching down to seemingly build momentum then launching the cardboard box, which is said to have tape with ‘fragile’ written on it, ’15 feet’ into the air
It easily clears the 7ft-tall fence to crash down onto the yard but the courier had already turned his back to grab his phone and take a proof-of-delivery photo.
He later posted the video on Facebook, sarcastically praising the driver’s actions as ‘Olympic shot put’ material, and shared images of the broken £24.95 lava lamp, still in its box marked ‘glass – be gentle with me.’
Jim explained he sells products on Amazon without using Evri but when a customer returns something Jeff Bezos’ e-commerce giant does send it back using them.
He says nobody was around to take in the unexpected delivery as it happened on a Sunday when the business was closed.
The company apologised and said ‘the driver will no longer be delivering on behalf of Evri’.
In another incident in Devon last year, an Evri delivery driver was caught carelessly throwing parcels out of his van and into a gutter in front of a digusted customer.
The courier in Torquay, Devon, hurled the packages, which are a range of sizes, in front of photographer Maciej Olszewski, who was worried one of the items could be his new camera.
Video shootage showed the driver’s white delivery van parked on the side of the road.
This is the moment an Evri delivery driver carelessly throws parcels out of his van and into a gutter in front of a disgusted customer
A large carboard box parcel can be seen getting chucked out of the white van and onto a growing pile of packages lying in the gutter
A growing pile of parcels is scattered along the gutter below the pavement just a couple of yards away from a drain.
With the rear door of the van open, a brown cardboard box can be seen getting chucked from inside the vehicle and into the gutter before a softer bright blue package joins it on the side of the road.
As the camera zooms in on the large pile of items due for delivery, another couple of soft parcels go flying out of the van.
Finally, a large and heavy-looking carboard box is thrown out of the vehicle and lands on top of a number of the other packages.
The shocking scene takes place in broad daylight as cars zoom past along the busy road.
Evri has told The Sun that the driver responsible for hurling the packages has been put on a ‘training course’ but remains employed by the firm.
The company added that they take their responsibility to ‘care’ for every parcel ‘seriously’.
Mr Olszewski, who was on his way to work when he witnessed the incident, said he had received damaged packages before.
‘I thought “what the f*** could this be my new camera?”‘ he said.
‘Someone could have stolen them just as easily.’
