What is the opposite of porch piracy? Whatever it is, it’s gotta be close to what an elderly woman in Elgin, Illinois, is experiencing. According to a report from ABC 7 Chicago, 79-year-old Pat Hurley has had more than 100 Amazon packages dropped at her doorstep over the past year—despite the fact that she didn’t order a single one of them.
Per the local ABC affiliate’s reporting, the Amazon boxes first started showing up at Hurley’s house last summer. The address on the box was hers, but the name on the box wasn’t. Simple mistake, right? Except the boxes just kept coming, and coming, and coming.
At this point, Hurley has received dozens of packages from Amazon—none of which she ordered, considering she doesn’t even have an Amazon account. She told ABC that she’s received as many as 20 unwanted packages in a single day, with no explanation as to why they were arriving at her home and no obvious way to make it stop.
The situation was more than just a nuisance for Hurley, who is nearly 80 years old and disabled. The sheer volume of boxes has become a real hazard for her, blocking her door and forcing her to lift and move them on a regular basis. “If somebody’s going to show up… I’m disabled… Alone in the house. And all this is happening. I’m getting a little nervous. You know, I mean, you don’t know what’s going on in this world,” Hurley told ABC 7 Chicago.
Over the weekend, ABC reported that an Amazon driver stopped by to pick up some of the packages that were crowding her home. Amazon reportedly apologized to Hurley for the problem and said they are investigating the situation and working on a long-term solution. One would imagine that would be just not delivering the packages that she didn’t order, but one would also assume whoever is ordering them would probably also be asking where they’re ending up. Per a previous report from ABC, the names that appeared on the boxes were consistent, but no one in the neighborhood knows who they are. So, the whole thing seems like a very strange situation—and one that left Hurley uneasy. Hopefully, at a minimum, her life will be made a little easier without unwanted boxes piling up on her porch.
Gizmodo reached out to Amazon for comment but did not receive a response at the time of publication.
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