Massachusetts police officer saves Christmas after finding 80 Amazon packages in woods

Lance Reynolds, Boston Herald on Dec 25, 2024

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BOSTON — A local Massachusetts police officer “likely saved a Christmas headache” after he discovered roughly 80 Amazon packages left behind in the woods, days before the holiday.

Early Sunday morning, Lakeville Police Sgt. Shawn Robert stumbled upon “three large totes full of Amazon packages” that a driver for the e-commerce company reportedly left on the side of a road because of “stress,” Chief Matthew Perkins said in a release on Monday.

The packages had been left unattended for roughly seven hours.

Perkins said the Amazon driver left the items in a wooded area on the side of a local road around 7 p.m. Saturday. Robert discovered the totes hours later, at about 2 a.m. Sunday, he added.

Body camera footage that Lakeville police released on Monday shows Robert approaching the items, confused about what they were before calling for assistance to drive the packages back to the station.

“Oh yeah, somebody definitely quit,” Robert says in the footage. “I was like ‘What is that? Is that trash?’ I was like ‘That’s not trash. It’s Amazon.’”

Robert is also heard saying he didn’t look at any of the addresses when collecting the packages from the woods. After he and a fellow officer put the items into the back of a pickup truck, Robert said at least one was labeled to be delivered to New Bedford.

Police had been trying to figure out why the packages had been left along the side of the road in woods that lead to an industrial area before solving the mystery Monday afternoon.

The Amazon driver who left the totes unattended visited Lakeville PD and told officers they left the packages behind because “they were stressed,” Perkins said in a release. The driver had planned to report the incident to their manager, the police chief added.

“I would like to commend Sgt. Shawn Robert for his discovery of these unattended packages while on routine patrol,” Perkins said. “Sgt. Robert likely saved a Christmas headache for many local residents by noticing these totes and getting them back to Amazon, hopefully in time for a holiday delivery.”

Perkins’ department had contacted the local Amazon distribution center in Middleboro and returned the packages to the company.

An Amazon representative confirmed that all orders had been reprocessed by Monday night, with the packages already redelivered or soon to be delivered – just in time for Christmas glory.

Assonet resident Blake Brangan told NBC10 Boston that he got a message from Amazon saying his package had been lost before he secured it Monday.

“It’s just really crazy to just toss them out in the woods like that, but thankfully for that officer that found them,” he said. “It’s stressful during the holidays.”

Perkins said the driver will not be criminally charged, with the incident being considered a human resources matter for Amazon.

“I am proud of the way our Lakeville Police officers handled and investigated this matter,” he said.

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