Early Sunday morning, around 2.a.m. in southeastern Massachusetts, Sgt. Shawn Robert from the Lakeville Police Department was on patrol when he spotted three large Amazon totes with more than 80 packages sitting in the woods.
The mystery was short-lived: An Amazon driver visited the Lakeville Police Department the following day and admitted they left the packages on the side of the road on Saturday evening “because they were stressed.”
Police say they returned the packages to Amazon and contacted the local distribution center in Middleborough about the incident, adding the department won’t seek criminal charges and the Amazon driver agreed to “report the incident to their manager.”
“This is a human resources matter for Amazon,” Lakeville Police Chief Matthew Perkins said in a statement.
An Amazon spokesperson told Fortune the company encourages “drivers who aren’t able, or don’t feel safe completing their routes, to report back to their employer,” adding all the abandoned items were redelivered to their intended destinations “ahead of the holiday.”
Thousands of Amazon workers went on strike last week, demanding. higher wages and better benefits; the strike officially ended on Christmas Eve. Amazon said none of its operations or deliveries were affected by the work stoppage.
