I'm sorry to hear that this has happened to you!! I would be furious!! Especially since it sounds like it was young kids, what the heck are they gonna do with all the fabric??!!
Depending on how it is sent, you can add special instructions to places like UPS, FedEx asking them to not leave items at the door, but to require a signature. However, it is probably best to have it mailed to your work, if they don't mind. I have most of my stuff delivered to my work. I have never had any problems at home, but recently I did. I live in an apartment. Our building only has six units. Mostly elderly couples. We are the young ones, but we get along great with our neighbors, even though at first I think they assumed we would be noisy, and party but they quickly learned that we are not like that. Anyhow, we have one neighbor who is a royal pain in the a**!!!! He is always playing death metal in the middle of the night really loud!! Last week, I went out to the recycling container to dump some stuff in and it was pretty full so I noticed right away that there was mail on top. MY MAIL!!! I am assuming my mail got placed in the neighbor's mailbox by mistake and instead of coming to me and giving it to me, or leaving it on top of our box, he threw it away!!! What a jerk! I couldn't imagine any of the other neighbors doing that, only him!!
People these days!!