Options When a Delivery Driver Steals a Package

Attorney Answer

A driver who keeps a package entrusted to him for delivery has committed larceny under Connecticut law, so the police report is worth making — but the money almost certainly comes back through the seller and your card issuer, not through the criminal case. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 53a-119 provides that "[a] person commits larceny when, with intent to deprive another of property or to appropriate the same to himself or a third person, he wrongfully takes, obtains or withholds such property from an owner." Larceny expressly includes embezzlement: "[a] person commits embezzlement when he wrongfully appropriates to himself or to another property of another in his care or custody." That is the exact shape of what you describe. A delivery driver has the package in his care or custody, and diverting it is embezzlement, not a civil misunderstanding. That matters because of what you are likely to be told when you call. Package theft is often waved off as "a civil matter between you and the shipper." When the suspect is the carrier's own driver and you have a photograph of the package in his car with location data, it is not a civil matter — it is a specific, chargeable offense with an identifiable suspect, and the report should be taken. Be equally clear about the limits. A criminal charge does not automatically refund you. Restitution depends on a conviction and a court order, which takes months and may never come. The realistic path to your money runs through the seller you bought from and through whoever processed the payment. What you can do 1. Preserve the evidence today, before the app data ages out. Screenshot the delivery confirmation photo, the GPS coordinates, the timestamps, the tracking history, and every message with the carrier. Write down your mother's account of what she saw while it is fresh, with the time. 2. File a police report with the department covering the delivery address. Name the carrier, give the delivery window, and hand over the photograph and coordinates. Ask for the report number. 3. Open a claim with the seller, not just the carrier. In most retail purchases the seller carries the risk of a package that is not properly delivered, and the seller has the contractual relationship with the carrier that you do not. 4. If the seller refuses, dispute the charge with your credit card issuer or the payment platform. Say the words "item not received" and attach the police report number. Card dispute windows are limited, so do this early rather than after months of back-and-forth. 5. Send the carrier a written claim, by email so it is dated, referencing the police report and the photo evidence. Verbal claims to a support line leave no record. 6. If the seller, carrier and card issuer all refuse, small claims court is available for the value of the goods, and the police report and photograph are your exhibits. 7. A complaint to the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection is worth filing as a pattern report, but do not treat it as your recovery mechanism — it will not get your package back.