Having gone through the tracking information provided by online sites and done simple addition, I’ve calculated that I lost a total of 4 packages on Thursday August 25th, with a combined total value of just under $400. This includes the most expensive slot car I’ve ever bought, a near mint Vibrator ‘62 Ford Country Squire wagon, for which I paid $223. I’ve already rambled on at length about the implications of this, so this post will show the first phase of what I intend to do about it.
Behold the “Qualarc PCSDB-LG Parcel Vault.” This little jewel cost me $400, and is to be anchored permanently to the concrete of my front porch by lag bolts. After I received it, one my friends was good enough to drop by the house while I was at work and make sure it got put safely inside the house, and that same friend-who is retired from the construction trades-brought over his hammer drill this weekend, a tool your humble blogger does not have in his own bag of tricks. That drill made short and easy work of what I was afraid would be a mess. After drilling the concrete, I slammed the bolt sleeves into the holes and then placed the parcel vault in position and used a long ratchet to drive the lag bolts downward; this was hot sweaty work in the direct sunlight while bent over at the waist, but it did remind me of my years wrenching on 1:1 scale cars when I was often removing cylinder heads or replacing water pumps or timing chains in uncharitable conditions. If nothing else it was also a reminder that I’m not as young as I once was!
So the concept of the parcel vault is obvious: the postal carrier lifts the unlocked lid, places the packages inside and closes it again and pushes the button to lock the lid, allowing me to open it when I return from my daily grind and get presents. Yay! The only potential negative here is that I have to depend on the postal workers to play along! Think they can handle it?
The next phase is much more expensive: the installation of a set of security cameras. I’ve been doing my homework and I think I have a system I want picked out, but the hardware and supplies are going to total around a cool grand and of course the installation is going to be an involved and unpleasant affair. Fortunately I have a couple of friends who have volunteered to help, so that’s good, but its not going to happen overnight. This solution is clumsier, but it was also quicker.
With the combination of the cameras and the package vault, I hope that I will have a way to keep my packages from being stolen and, if not, be able to present evidence that they were in order to have some chance at a refund, because, dear readers, your humble blogger is simply S.O.L. on the items I bought and the money they cost me. That’s a lot of scratch to just flush, and it cannot happen again. So, here’s hoping that these solutions will allow me to continue with both my hobby and this blog about it!
It looks like a great idea! It sounds like it’s a one shot per day situation though. What happens if you get a second delivery in the same day from a different carrier like UPS or FEDEX?
Then I’m pretty much screwed. Like I said, its a clumsy solution but I had to do something. I’ll just have to be very diligent about checking the box every weekday when I get home.
That’s a bummer! Anyway, I didn’t mean to imply it wasn’t a good idea. It’s a whole lot better than what I have, which is nothing. Considering how often you’ve gotten packages stolen, which doesn’t sound like very often before (if ever), and the low chances of you getting multiple deliveries in one day, I’d say you have a pretty iron clad solution going. 😊