Delivery driver appears to have been caught faking delivery of iPhone

Bradley Stoker was waiting in at home for his new iPhone 6 to be delivered, so he was a bit surprised to get a message from delivery firm DPD saying it had arrived. When he looked into the delivery more closely, he was shocked by what he found.

According to the Daily Mail, the message from the firm said it had been left with a neighbour, so Bradley (a 39-year-old service engineer from Ealing) checked with his neighbours. They said they hadn't taken any parcels in for him, but fortunately, one of his neighbours said he had a CCTV camera installed outside, and offered to let him check the footage.

In it, you can see the delivery van draw up outside the property, a man gets out of the van with a package, and walks to the end of the drive. However, then Bradley claims he saw the driver using his GPS to register he had attended the address, and then leave with the phone.

A DPD spokesman told The Telegraph: "We deliver over 200 million parcels a year and incidents such as this are incredibly rare. DPD take the security of our customers' parcels very seriously indeed and a full investigation is currently underway."

Delivery disasters

With so many millions of parcels delivered every day, there will always be the odd individual in the delivery chain who chooses to be less than honest.

Last December, another delivery driver put a note through one customer's door saying that an X-Box had been left in the wheelie bin. The customer checked the bin, and after discovering it was empty, looked through the CCTV footage of outside his house. On the footage, he saw the driver leaving a note and then disappearing with a package.

A month earlier, a delivery driver in Stirling was caught on camera arriving with two parcels to deliver to a flat. When he arrived, he saw there was already a parcel sitting outside the property, so he scooped that one, and left with all three.

And it's not just a few drivers who are taking advantage. We reported back in December on the man from Worcester who was expecting £155 worth of Christmas gifts to be delivered. He received a card saying a parcel had been left with a neighbour, so popped round to collect it. His neighbour said she hadn't received anything, so he checked the CCTV footage outside his house, and saw a man - who doesn't live next door, and isn't known by the people who do - answer the door to his neighbour's house, and take two packages in. He later delivered just one of the packages to the right house.

What can you do?

With so many parcels being delivered, there is always a risk of something going awry. So many drivers nowadays are paid for the parcels delivered rather than for their time, that more tend to be left outside homes - leaving them vulnerable.

It means it's worth considering how you will avoid attracting thieves. The easiest solution is to have things delivered to you at work if possible.

If not, you can have a standing arrangement with a neighbour, who you know tends to be in, asking them to take delivery of parcels for you.

Some enterprising people even hire their neighbour's children to check their property every day for parcels, before and after school, and pay them for retrieving any parcels. This means vulnerable parcels are less likely to be sitting in the dark while you're on a long commute.

Alternatively, you can take a technological solution. There are companies selling lockable boxes with intercoms that you can secure outside your house. When the driver uses the intercom, it calls your mobile, and you can confirm your identity and remotely release the lock for them to put the parcel in the box. When the lid closes, it locks automatically, securing the parcel.

And if all else fails, you can take the step these householders have chosen, and have CCTV installed outside your property, so you can keep an eye on anyone coming and going from your property.

But what do you think? Are you worried about deliveries, or have you never had a problem? Let us know in the comments.