An Amazon courier has been caught on CCTV stealing a parcel left outside a customer’s door in Stirling, Scotland, when he discovered that the person he was delivering two other parcels to was not home.

CCTV footage showed the courier, who works for a third party delivery company, looking around to see if there are any cameras, before picking up the parcel outside the customer’s door and walking away with three parcels under his arm.

54 year old Stewart Tainsh was away when the courier came to deliver his parcels late last week. Finding that no parcels at all were outside his door on his return he checked his CCTV camera footage to see if it had recorded the theft, only to find it was the Amazon courier.

Tainsh complained to Amazon and eventually representatives from Amazon and the contract delivery company came to see the footage. It is likely that the courier will be sacked or suspended for the theft, which unfortunately for the opportunist thief was £28 worth of tulip bulbs for Mr Tainsh’s garden. The police are investigating.

Commenting on the incident, Mr Tainsh said, “I would have been happier if it had been some young kid or something, but to see a grown man who does this for a living take it was really disgusting.”

In response to the complaint from Mr Tainsh and the consequent media coverage, Amazon put out a statement that said, “We take an allegation of this nature extremely seriously and are working with the delivery company who are investigating the matter.”

With the coming rush for the e-commerce market it is important that temporary staff that handle parcels are checked for their criminal history and that they are unlikely to commit this sort of criminal act. Reputations are hard won and easily lost.