Two iPhones, valued at a total of $700, were reported stolen before the Darien man who bought them even got a chance to see them delivered, police said.
Darien police gave this account of the incident:
A Brookside Drive man told police on May 30 that he had bought through the Internet two iPhone 7 models for $350 each. He was given a UPS tracking number.
On May 29, he received a text message from UPS telling him that the phones had been delivered at 1:48 p.m., and at about 2:30 p.m., the man’s children arrived home and got all the mail from the mailbox.
The package that was supposed to be holding the iPhones was there, but it appeared to have been tampered with — the packing tape had been cut, and only the bubble-wrap and charging cables were inside. None of the other mail seemed to have been tampered with.
(For at least several years, United Parcel Service and FedEx have used the U.S. Postal Service for the last leg of the journey that many of the private carriers’ packages take.)
When the customer called the company, he was able to speak with the person who packaged the phones for delivery. The worker said the phones had been shipped and added that the company always applies the shipping label over the tape before shipping.
The employee suggested the man file a police report and also file a report with the U.S. Postal Inspector’s Office, since it appeared the phones were stolen in transit.
Police asked neighbors if they knew of anything suspicious, but nothing resulted from that effort. The investigation isn’t over.