You glance outside and there’s an Amazon box squatting on your porch like it pays rent. Two weeks of radio silence pass, then your neighbor kicks off World War III, screaming “THIEF!” over a package she couldn’t be bothered to claim.
What began as a simple delivery screw-up exploded into doorbell chaos, leaked addresses, and one raging lady who apparently needed a fortnight to remember her own stuff existed. The Redditor stayed ice-cold: phoned Amazon, confirmed the label, and got corporate permission to either keep the loot or chuck it straight in the bin.
Redditor followed Amazon’s official misdelivery policy, kept part of a wrong-address package, then got accused of theft two weeks later.
Look. Many of us might have got accused of grand larceny by a neighbor over a box of who-knows-what at some point in life. The same happened to our OP, although he had followed Amazon instructed protocol.
Let’s break it down: a package with no unit number lands on the wrong doorstep in a townhouse complex. The finder calls Amazon, confirms it’s misdelivered, and is told – per company policy – to keep or discard it. The actual buyer gets refunded or resent the item. End of story, right? Wrong.
Two weeks later, neighbor shows up with doorbell-camera evidence and a whole attitude, claiming Amazon refused to help her. Cue the awkward apology and the return of the one item that hadn’t been trashed yet.
On one side, some folks insist the Redditor should have played private detective: knocking on every door until they found “Jessica with the mystery package.” On the other, the overwhelming majority says Amazon’s mistake is Amazon’s problem, not a random resident’s second job.
A former Amazon customer service rep even chimed in to confirm: this is textbook policy. When a package is proven delivered to the wrong address, the recipient at that address is explicitly told to keep or trash it, and the original buyer gets made whole. No exceptions.
This whole fiasco shines a spotlight on a surprisingly common issue: misdelivered packages in multi-unit buildings. According to a 2023 Pitney Bowes shipping index, over 1.7 billion packages were delivered to wrong addresses in the U.S. alone, and the problem keeps growing with the boom in online shopping.
Privacy rules prevent customer service from revealing the correct recipient’s full address, which leaves good Samaritans in a tricky spot.
Brandon Reich and Troy Campbell, Assistant Professors of Marketing, have explored how people redirect blame in situations like product mishaps. In a 2019 article for The Conversation, they noted: “Combined with what psychologists know about blame, this suggests that if someone is a morally bad person, we’re more likely to tell ourselves that they deserve to suffer and therefore blame them for things that aren’t their fault.”
Sound familiar? The neighbor wasn’t really mad at the Redditor. She was mad at Amazon and needed somewhere to aim that frustration.
Neutral take? The Redditor followed the rules they were given and isn’t obligated to play mail carrier. A kind gesture would have been posting in a local Facebook group or sticking a note on the box, but kindness isn’t a requirement.
Meanwhile, waiting two weeks then storming over with police threats feels a tad… dramatic. Everyone could probably use a deep breath and a reminder that Amazon has deeper pockets than any of us.
See what others had to share with OP:
Some people say NTA because OP followed Amazon’s official policy and instructions exactly.
Some people argue NTA because OP had no way to safely or reasonably deliver the package themselves.
Others emphasize that the neighbor waited far too long and was likely trying to scam a second item.
Some people believe YTA for not simply walking the package to the correct neighbor.
One misdelivered box turned into a masterclass in misplaced blame and doorbell drama. Do you think the Redditor was totally in the clear for following Amazon’s instructions, or should they have gone full neighborhood Sherlock?
And how long is too long to wait before knocking on a stranger’s door yelling about your lost goodies? Drop your verdict below, we’re dying to know!
