Unless someone stole the package from the UPS return forward, it is simple enough to track the package back to the sender. The PO can do that herself. The officer should have dropped it and moved forward with having the return tracked back to the sender instead of jumping to threats. Makes no sense.

I would think that unless the police have probable cause to get a search warrant and find the speakers in his home or can trace them to someone he sold or gave them to, that they would have a tough time proving your son "stole" the speakers. He may want to consult an atty and if I were him I'd not talk to the police again without one. I am not a lawyer, nor did I play one on TV.

Apparently PO says she hasn't been credited the return. But this only happened two weeks ago and credits sometimes take time. To get the police involved?? We've never met PO and house sale was smooth and he paid asking price. You're right, none of this makes sense.

I'm wondering if the police officer knows the previous owner eg friend or relative. Why else would the police care at all about mis delivered bluetooth speakers?

Meanwhile DS lives in another city and is trying not to panic. We calmed him down a bit and he was going to call his boss whom he also trusts about an attorney recommendation.

She needs to have UPS follow the tracking number to see what happened with regards to the return. You'd think it would show up on their online tracking system.

It would be cheaper to buy her new speakers than engage an attorney! Really, UPS should have the answer what happened to the package.

Robo, exactly our thoughts. PO lived here a few years so entirely possible friends with an officer here. DS said they've never had any problems. Lawn is mowed weekly, he even planted flowers! No loud parties etc. surely the police have more important things to do?

He's worried about an arrest, as he is in a position in a financial institution, well, it would look bad even though this is all bogus!!

I can't imagine them arresting for something like this. Not only that but before they check with UPS? This is sounding like some sort of a scam. I take it he was in uniform? It doesn't sound professional or reasonable protocol at all.

I would call the police department to speak with someone else.

Yeah, there's something very fishy sounding about this. Definitely call the police department and find out if this is even for real. People have been known to impersonate police officers, and as was stated above, the police don't get involved in mis-delivered UPS packages containing little speakers.

They can arrest him, if the officer thinks there is requisite probable cause, which he may.

Did he sign for it?

Seems like UPS could clear this up in the morning.

The PO and the PO (police officer) both sound like azzholes. SO sorry for your son!

He was in uniform and was very rude. Sounds like DS handled it well, answered questions etc. He had a good visit just now with his boss who said this is totally bogus due to ups tracking etc and it sounds like the cop was out of line and there absolutely is no cause for a charge.

Truth be told, some cops do target this age group and I'm sure he was disappointed to find an honest young man who actually owns a home. He was rude about that too, asking how long he's been renting.

I'm sure this is the end of it, and I'll say a prayer asking for guidance for that police officer.

Thank you all for your support and advice!

Mtn, thank you. No he didn't sign for it, just found it on the front porch. Was nice enough and honest! to make the trip to UPS to return it. One of life's weird, ugly lessons. He doesn't want to call the police station or visit to complain. This little "village" in a large city is known for aggressive ticketing etc. The large city paper even did a big article about them a year ago, they were getting so many complaints about the local police. Onward and upward to the high road!

Wow. Our tax dollars at work! Hope it is resolved soon .

Time to call a supervisor at the police station. I agree with Robo. Somebody knows somebody. Don't spend a dime on a lawyer. No way the police has any proof that your son did anything wrong.

story is odd. PO doesn't sound too bright. Wouldn't the first thing a PO in that sitch do would be to simply check with UPS? Seems like the more reasonable course than threatening arrest right off the bat.

There is something weird about this story. cop with an attitude?

Wow what a crazy story. Definitely something off about this, and it does seem almost scam-like, but the actual package was really delivered there. I thought at first when reading this that the Policeman was a fake and looking to intimidate and somehow get $$ (for "dropping the charges" or not arresting etc). But what is puzzling me ( never very good at guessing endings to mysteries) is that there really was a package which was addressed to Previous Ovner etc. Just for the heck of it I would see if the name of the Policeman matches up with the face and works at the police department.

Agree that tracking the package should be possible though I guess your son wouldnt have kept that info, as he thought he was just righting a situation.
Sorry you are dealing with this craziness. Keep us posted.

Sorry, but there are just too many bizarre claims here. Perhaps this police officer was bffs with the purchaser. He MAY make a courtesy call but I hope MOST of us would have called the son and inquired not jumped to calling the police. The police would not get involved in this sort of issue. No he cannot be arrested for this.

Everyone is assuming the UPS people are all honest. To return a package no paper work required is a red flag and no way to prove anything was ever delivered improperly or returned.

The son needs to push back with the purchaser. A professionally lawyer-esque sounding letter will have her back off because as you say she would have to get a lawyer for this to move forward. A small claims court might issue a court order, but I doubt it. In that situation the police will not deliver the court summons, she would have to or she would have to pay someone to do it for her. They have to be delivered IN PERSON. Frankly w/o a signature there is no way for the original purchaser to prove a kid or another neighbor didn't come along and take the package.

DS needs to CHILL OUT, have a beer and laugh this off.

Wow! I would tell DS to call the police department and ask for the PO's supervisor and report this immediately. Sounds very fishy.

"the police don't get involved in mis-delivered UPS packages containing little speakers."

Yes, they do. I mean, who else is going to show up at his door and ask for it, if the purchaser is scared, can't find his phone number or lives a world away? You'd be surprised the (seemingly trivial?) things law enforcement ends up doing, time permitting.

This doesn't sound like a scam to me. If your son was honest with the officer, then he shouldn't worry about arrest. It's too bad the LEO was rude or came off that way. The hard thing for LEOs is that they deal with lying criminals all day and the worst of the worst. Sometimes that approach is what is needed for those typical dealings. :(

Thanks all. I'll keep you posted but I'm hopeful the situation is over since the officer told DS he believes him.

Lolauren, thank you. I know LEO see some pretty shady people throughout their shifts. (Have two in our family. Have not yet had a chance to run this by them.). Thus I understand him investigating a possible theft, though he seemed to go about it backward. First thing everyone says is to check UPS.

I think police involvement varies state to state and town to town. Can't imagine a PO coming to my apartment in the city and doing this. At our house upstate though, I can totally see it happening.

Out of curiosity, how is anyone supposed to track the package now? UPS didn't give her son any paperwork, and the original tracking number shows it was delivered to his house. That number doesn't get re-used.

Out of curiosity, how is anyone supposed to track the package now? UPS
didn't give her son any paperwork, and the original tracking number
shows it was delivered to his house. That number doesn't get re-used.

It should have been noted in the UPS system that a new tracking number has been assigned.

4boys2-

I understand, but that number doesn't help since there's no way to figure out that it belongs to the package he returned.

I know here, I can't walk into UPS and ask them to get the tracking number on a package I returned weeks ago. Especially if it doesn't even have my name.

I would be interested in where this happened. It does seem like a very unlikely scenario that the police would get involved. Where I live, the police won't respond to reports of car break-ins or, often, to reports of car theft. They will take the information but nothing more. So I can't imagine any police officer being dispatched to track down a missing package.

In our state a felony theft is $1,000 and over. So the PO probably told the police the value was over that. Then police have to make a report. But once our son told them he didn't have it, didn't open it and returned it, case is closed. No proof. And most likely police stopped earlier while he was at work, thus the evening visit. This is the theory anyway.

I have to say I'm glad previous owner doesn't have DS's cell number or work address.

"Out of curiosity, how is anyone supposed to track the package now? UPS didn't give her son any paperwork, and the original tracking number shows it was delivered to his house. That number doesn't get re-used."

No doubt UPS keeps tight track of all of a package's information no matter what course it takes.

They are also liable for lost or damaged packages so no way they don't know the original # if it changes for returns.

UPS should be able to look at all returns processed at that location for that day and find the name or address if nothing else. Go higher up than the local branch if they can't do it there.

The PO should file a claim with UPS if it never turns up. That's probably the best way to initiate the search anyway.

Our neighbors had ordered a very expensive item, and came to our door to pick it up because the deliverer had left a note that, since they weren't home, we had signed for it and had it. But we hadn't signed for it, knew nothing about it! Never did hear what the outcome was. Glad they believed us!

There is theft at UPS outlets (just like anywhere else). I would find out who the gal is that your son returned the package to. Perhapes that outlet has cameras. Odd he didn't get some sort of paper/receipt or something.

A few years ago our main post office hub for packages had horrible theft going on around Christmas. It would show packages arriving for delivery...and then nothing. It stopped there.

Sorry I don't have any wisdom to share re: this incident but I am making a mental note to get receipts. Perhaps ups has a camera and son is seen entering ups, or maybe that's just TV fantasy.

I can totally envision someone dropping off a mis-delivered package at a UPS branch, the busy clerk looking up from whatever they're working on and saying, "OK, thanks!", and that being the end of the transaction. Definitely a good idea to get some kind of receipt/acknowledgment, but most of us might never think we'd need it.

The officer was probably just making an inquiry to see if he could recover the package or read your son's reaction to satisfy the woman. They may have had an interest in her complaint because they knew her, she may have a relative or friend or they may have enough parcel theft that they wanted to see if this could lead to breaking a number of cases. A DA would not prosecute on the facts you've stated, but cops can try to scare anyone.

If he took the package back to UPS without a new label or call ticket, the package could sit at the UPS location for a while without even being picked up. Once returned to the sender, it probably would not be processed as efficiently as it normally would. And some companies say to allow 39 days for your credit to show up under normal circumstances. It is entirely possible that the package fell through the cracks at either end -- as well as it being stolen by someone at UPS or the seller since they know it was not expected and not being tracked at that point.

The woman who ordered the item is the one who can initiate a search and have UPS and the seller look for sidetracked parcels. It may take a while -- this is a busy time with graduation, students moving and shipping boxes home or ordering things for their new places, weddings, Mother's and Father's Day. It may take a while to resolve -- especially if the woman who ordered the speakers isn't working with the right people to resolve it.

I would report them to the state police commissioner if you don't feel that the reporting of this abuse would be appropriate at the local level. This is a violation of the rules. The police officer cannot show up and accuse someone without probable cause. I don't care if this was the Police Chiefs' wife, this is wrong. I can imagine how terrifying this must have been for a young man.

I would follow up with the police department. Very strange.

It's possible that the woman is either related to the cop or is a friend of his, or else the woman knows how to 'work the system' (knows what to say to get cops out there). Since the cop is wrong in this case as it seems he just assumed your son was guilty of 'theft', and now the cop can't 'back down' and admit he was wrong about your son. I'm so sorry to hear about the problem he is having, it's just an error, but get the cops involved, geez.

Your son should move to where we live, cops only come out if someone is murdered. Everything else they ignore.

Weird chit happens! Shortly after my son came back from Japan we had a state police officer at our house. Apparently their was a vehicular homiside a few hours north of us which also involved fleeing in a stolen truck and I think assault on an officer. The bad guy was eventually caught where he gave my sons name as the driver.

My son had all the documentation proving he was not even in the country at that time. He had no idea who this guy was and had never even been to his town.

Still, a bit scary.

I guess the bad guy got twenty years .

We had no problems with the police investigator as he was just doing his job.

The only thing I can say about this is I have had things lost in the "mail." In my case, it was Fed Ex. They couldn't deliver it to my friend (I had sent a wreath of dried herbs as a sympathy gift upon the death of her father). They said they couldn't find the address. Then took back to the mail room office and it got sent back to company I ordered it from. At least that is the explanation my friend received when she contacted Fed Ex about it. The company I ordered it from never got it and I couldn't get a refund for it anyway. Fed Ex said too bad. Can't remember why, maybe it wasn't insured? Anway, I was out about 50 bucks. Lesson learned. And as an additional side note, I have no idea why they couldn't find her house to deliver it, she said she had never had this problem before. I mean she did live way out in the country, but she gets mail and packages all the time.

Sounds like complete and utter BS to me, all the way around. About a couple of speakers, right? Blech!

It doesn't add up . I'm wondering if it's a scam.

UPS would be the one to inform/deal/work w/the police since they're the 'victim', their pkg disappeared.

Was the pkg returned to a UPS Store or sorting facility?

The orig receiver should be making the claim w/the seller - they'll deal w/UPS--I'm sure they insured the pkg, and eventually she will be comp'd aften an investigation

ETA: I would make a visit to the police station and have a talk w/the desk Sargent.

The orig receiver should be making the claim w/the seller - they'll deal w/UPS-- YES YES and double again YES

The shipper is the only one who can file a claim.The only time police generally get involved is if there is fraud. No fraud- the recipient used an old address in error.

We had a package not show up, UPS said they left it at our door. Package was never found. We put in a claim with the vendor and they went after UPS. We got a credit from the vendor to order another item. No police involved.

One of the reasons why we plan on getting several security cameras around our property. It would be good to know if UPS was the problem or someone else walked up to the house and stole the package.

The whole thing seems very fishy to me. I had a package not arrive once-- a music bench that UPS had delivered to someone else who had signed for it and kept it. I never got anything back from anyone on that.

About the same time I had a car stolen. (It was a 1957 VW, so easy to recognize. There aren't many around.) A friend saw it in a mall parking lot a couple of months later and called the police, who said, "Yeah, we have four shootings, two rapes, and a home invasion in progress right now. When we get through with all those, we'll be right over. Say Wednesday."

So this seems extremely peculiar to me.

About a yaar or so ago I had a package delivered to our house along with another package that was not addressed to us, not even in our neighborhood. When I tried to call about this (can't remember if it was UPS or fedex) they had a hard time believing me that the address on the package is not mine yet it was here and delivery confirmed to the other house. They did come and get it the next day.

We have had instances of packages stolen off doorsteps where the police investigated and caught people, but what you described is not what happens normally.