UPDATE (Thursday, Nov. 30, 2023): Boston police issued a clarification saying the incident was not a crime, but "more of a misunderstanding." Details here.
More than 100 packages are believed stolen from the mail room at an apartment building in Boston's Roxbury neighborhood, police said Wednesday.
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According to the police report, the issue was first reported by the lead concierge at the building at 75 Saint Alphonsus St. on Wednesday morning. She told police that she was notified Tuesday that the mail system was not working right and that tenants could not access their packages in storage until it was resolved. However, on Wednesday, several tenants reported that there was an unlocked door to the storage room, and when they went in to grab their mail, their packages were missing.
Surveillance footage revealed three men apparently manipulating the control panel to access the package room, then leaving with multiple packages. Several tenants were also seen entering and leaving the unit through this unlocked door, the report states.
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There were 138 packages delivered on Tuesday - by Wednesday, none of those packages were inside the storage room where they belonged.
Residents said they were surprised to learn about the thefts because they thought the building was generally secure.
“We thought this building is you know luxury, and very secure, but I was shocked this thing happened," said Yifan Chen.
Chen said she did receive an email about the thefts and wasn't sure how it happened.
"We also have a front desk to keep track of every person who enters the building, who are the deliverymen," she told NBC10 Boston.
Kush Pandya said he had ordered a package from Amazon and thinks it was among those stolen.
"I was in my office, I asked them where it was and they are like 'we are still scanning,' and today I got the email while I was in the office. It was an expensive thing so, yeah.”
Pandya said next time, he'll send his order to a friend's house to be on the safe side.
The three suspects left at one point and then returned to take more packages, the video showed. The first was described as around 5'7", wearing a purple T-shirt, grey and black striped shorts and sandals. The second was wearing a black puffer jacket, blue T-shirt and black shorts with white stripes. The third was wearing a black T-shirt with black pants.
The tenants with missing packages were told to file a police report. An investigation is underway.
