It's an article that appeared in my local newspaper today; it's about package thiefs, and how you can prevent yourself from becoming a victim.
http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs...121209269/1005
One of the main points of the article is that if you're ordering something valuable, you should have it shipped by a method that requires a signature be obtained upon delivery. This will prevent a package being left unattended where a thief can nab it.
Interestingly, the article mentions that Amazon.com only requires a signature on packages valued above $1300.00. (That's a pretty high value! I've never purchased anything that expensive except maybe cars & furniture.)
In my business, I've always made it a point to require signatures on anything over $150 ($100 if being sent to an apartment) to protect my customers from this sort of thing. Apparently that's not commonly done! But I would rather be safe than sorry. When something goes wrong in shipping the problem always bounces back to the merchant anyway. And none of the carriers (UPS, FedEx, USPS) will help either the shipper or the recipient once a package has been delivered.
Read, and become a bit wiser!