13 September 2021

How far would you go to chase down your missing package?

| Lottie Twyford
Join the conversation
22
Empty mailbox

Opening an empty mailbox wasn’t quite what Tanya Wright was hoping for. Photo: Michelle Kroll.

When a package goes missing, it’s a pain.

When a package with sentimental value goes missing, it’s painful.

Palmerston woman Tanya Wright knows this feeling well. Since July – before the ACT was in COVID-19 lockdown – she has been expecting a package from her mother-in-law who lives in Hervey Bay, Queensland.

In the package is a handmade cardigan, a red beanie, a library bag with a dinosaur sewn on it, and some hand towels.

It should have been delivered on Thursday, 15 July.

Since then, Tanya has been on a mission to track down the items.

There have been phone calls, hours sitting on hold to various agencies, Facebook posts, tracking down people who think they might know something, letterbox dropping, and learning more about how packages are delivered than she thought she’d ever need to know.

Pink and purple cardigan

This is the hand-knitted cardigan that should have been delivered to Tanya’s family in Palmerston. Photo: Tanya Wright.

There have been hours spent learning about how many of her street names there are in Australia (there’s no others within Canberra, or within 100km of the ACT, in case you’re interested).

While there is a Palmerston in the Northern Territory, she is 100 per cent sure it didn’t end up there.

Tanya says she has exhausted pretty much all of her avenues. The last place the package has been tracked to is a GPS location near her home in Palmerston, but there isn’t a delivery photo to verify this.

She thinks it may have mistakenly ended up with a neighbour or another house in her suburb because her home recording system shows it wasn’t delivered to her own house.

“It’s a system that only records if there is movement or if someone rings the bell,” explains Tanya.

READ ALSO Let’s stop pretending the housing affordability crisis is out of our hands

She’s been around to ask those neighbours closest to her and is now pleading with the wider community to “double-check your letterboxes, your houses, check in with your neighbours, friends and family”.

Some of the wackier theories she’s come across on Facebook include a warehouse in regional NSW that’s meant to be full of stolen packages.

Right now, Tanya isn’t concerned about who has got it, why they have it or why they might not yet have returned it.

“I have a four-year-old asking every day where his package is, and a one-year-old who I can’t dress in her ‘cardi’,” she says.

“I can’t even send my mother-in-law photos of the kids with their gifts from gran to proudly share among her friends.”

The hand towels were meant to have been Tanya’s birthday present.

She’s even offering a $100 reward for anyone who might be able to locate the package.

So far, the community response has been incredible, says Tanya. People have offered to knit her a cardigan just like the one the family is missing, and chip in for the reward.

“We aren’t going to take up any of these offers though because we count ourselves among the lucky ones with a roof over our head and we are able to pay the bills,” she says.

READ ALSO Nazmul Hasan is delivering free, hot halal meals to those in need this lockdown

In a statement to Region Media, an Australia Post spokesperson acknowledged the challenges of current circumstances, in which record volumes of parcels are being delivered.

The current protocol for delivering parcels dictates that posties and drivers knock at someone’s door three times and call out before leaving a card or safe-dropping a parcel.

The spokesperson said that reasons for a card being left without knocking would be access or safety issues, “such as an off-leash dog – and this could happen even when a customer is home”.

Customers are encouraged by Australia Post to download their mobile app which provides an option to have parcels left in a safe place.

If an item is incorrectly addressed or is unclaimed at the post office and can’t be returned to its sender, it is sent to a mail redistribution centre where it is opened, catalogued and stored for two months, during which time the customer service team will try to connect mail to customers.

If the two-month retention period lapses and the item hasn’t been claimed, all identifying markings are removed and the item will be auctioned, with 100 per cent of the proceeds donated to charity.

Join the conversation

22
All Comments
  • All Comments
  • Website Comments
LatestOldest

I will still hold Aus Post a little ahead of the USPS in America. A parcel sent to me from the U.S. East coast, clearly and properly addressed, was sent to Austria.
They sent it back.
So the imaginative types in the USA found a town similar to where I lived (not in Canberra at the time) ….. in Ireland.
Maybe someone in the Irish PO knew someone in Australia, because rather than sending it back they moved it directly here.
Only about three months in all.

ChrisinTurner4:02 pm 12 Sep 21

Australia Post is unfortunately no longer a reliable deliverer of parcels to residential addresses. In many cases delivery is not even attempted, as CCTV proves in this case. Cards are not left. The problem is worse if it is raining. Mind you Amazon and other couriers are no better. Post Office “Parcel Collect” works.

Man With The Plan6:29 am 13 Sep 21

You aren’t wrong there. I’ve had Australia post send a parcel back to an international sender, stating that my address doesn’t exist (they obviously didn’t look very hard).
I managed to have it intercepted in Sydney, only to have the guy in the parcel office tell me that maybe the delivery driver didn’t know where Queanbeyan was.

The large majority of Amazon parcels are handled by Australia Post….

The use of contractors for parcels means service delivery quality varies wildly – we have a magnificent guy at the moment here in our suburb – always rings the bell, always leaves parcels inside the secure front door (apartment building) if he can rather then carding, always super polite.

He had someone else helping out the other week however due to massive volume – complete opposite. 3 times had to go to post office to pick parcels up, when every time we were at home and he didn’t ring the bell.

Daily Digest

Want the best Canberra news delivered daily? Every day we package the most popular Riotact stories and send them straight to your inbox. Sign-up now for trusted local news that will never be behind a paywall.

By submitting your email address you are agreeing to Region Group's terms and conditions and privacy policy.