CCTV footage at Sharon Wilson's home in Bilborough, Nottinghamshire, caught a Hermes driver delivering a package and apparently taking away another one that had been left by Royal Mail earlier that day
A Hermes delivery driver has been sacked after allegedly “stealing” a Royal Mail parcel that was left on a 72-year-old customer’s doorstep.
Sharon Wilson from Bilborough, Nottinghamshire, could not believe her eyes when she looked back on her CCTV footage and caught the driver "running off" with her package.
The customer, who has been self-isolating due to a respiratory condition, had been waiting for weeks for her parcel to arrive but did not know that it had already been delivered and taken away.
After contacting Royal Mail and being told it was delivered on November 26, she decided to look back on her surveillance camera footage to check if anyone had come by.
The CCTV shows a postie dropping off her package at around 11am that morning, before knocking on the door and walking away.
Mrs Wilson did not hear the knock on the door so the item was left on the doorstep for a few hours.
Shocking footage from 4.30pm that day shows a male Hermes driver enter the garden to deliver another package for Mrs Wilson.
But after placing the item down on the doorstep, he can be seen picking up the other Royal Mail package and quickly running away with it.
Mrs Wilson reported the incident to Nottinghamshire Police who are currently investigating the incident.
Hermes confirmed on December 24 that in response to the footage, the driver will no longer be working for them.
Speaking on Thursday, Sharon said: “I order quite a lot online because I am isolating, so can’t get out much.
“I had ordered some pyjamas for my daughter from Amazon and the company I ordered them from said I would receive the item by November 30.
“I kept following up to ask where it was but I wasn’t unduly worried.
“The post lady came around 11.30 am and delivered it but because I had recently got a food delivery in from Morrisons, I was unloading everything and didn’t hear.
“I had an email saying another item from Jacamo was being delivered by Hermes later on that day so we sat and waited but again didn’t hear when that came.
“I went out later looking for it and found it at the front door.
"I went to the Royal Mail depot who said my parcel had been delivered to a neighbour so we checked there but couldn’t find it.
“I asked my son to check the CCTV to see if we could see the post lady going past. When we started watching it, we just couldn’t believe it.
“We spotted her come in at 11.15am, knocked and left and then he comes by around 4.30pm, drops off the Jacamo parcel off and picks the Royal Mail one up.
“You can see him look at the window, chap the door and quickly run off.
“The way he was galloping away as well. He shouldn’t keep his job should he?”
The seller from Amazon refunded Mrs Wilson for the pyjamas and since watching the footage, Hermes has also offered to compensate her.
A spokeswoman for Hermes said: “We have been in contact with Mrs Wilson to apologise and have provided her with a £50 gesture of goodwill - she has already received a refund.
“The courier involved will no longer deliver on behalf of Hermes.”
A spokesman for Nottinghamshire Police said: “Officers from Nottinghamshire Police were called at around 4.30pm on 26 November to a report that a parcel had been stolen from a doorstep in Bilborough, Nottingham.”
Police Constable Samuel Richardson, of Nottinghamshire Police, added: “Lots of us are relying on deliveries this Christmas so we completely understand how disappointing it is to have a parcel go missing.
“We are following up a number of lines of enquiry in relation to this incident, including looking at the CCTV. We don’t want anyone to be taken advantage of this Christmas.”
