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Man Says UPS Delivery ‘Trapped’ Him in His Home—With an Amazon Package

By
Don Reisinger
Don Reisinger
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By
Don Reisinger
Don Reisinger
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September 6, 2017, 12:30 PM ET

Update on 9/08/17: A day after this story was published, Jessie Lawrence retracted his claim, saying that UPS did not, in fact, deliver the package. In a series of tweets, Lawrence said that he “made a huge mistake” and apologized to the company. He has declined all press requests for further information on the mistake. This story has been updated for clarity.

A man took to Twitter this week after allegedly being locked into his home by a UPS driver bringing him his Amazon delivery. Now, though, he says UPS didn’t deliver the package.

Jessie Lawrence on Sunday posted an image to Twitter showing an Amazon box fitting snugly under the doorknob to his apartment. When he tried to open the door, he said, the knob couldn’t move, locking him inside his home.

“Hey @UPS, your driver left this package under our door knob like this and trapped us in our apartment,” he said in his tweet, according to CNET which earlier reported on the incident. “Had to call maintenance to get out.”

For a period of time, Lawrence shuttered public access to his account, and now only allows his authorized followers to see his tweets. He re-opened his account on Thursday to apologize to UPS and clarified that the company did not actually deliver the package.

The Internet is awash with videos of delivery people making some unfortunate decisions when bringing boxes to customer homes. A quick search on YouTube, for instance, reveals drivers throwing boxes over fences or on porches, and otherwise doing things you might not want to see happen with your Amazon order.

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But those instances represent an exceedingly small number of deliveries, and the vast majority are handled with care and placed on customer doorsteps without damage or incident.

The Lawrence incident is difficult to verify, and it’s unclear whether the box’s placement was intentional or not.

Still, his tweet went viral and before long, people on Twitter were sharing with friends and commenting about their own problems with deliveries. He told his followers on Monday that he’s received so many comments about the box that his Twitter app was “crashing.”

Amazon declined a Fortune request for comment on the incident.

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By Don Reisinger
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