With a little distance, Klaus Thomalla from Cologne can laugh about it. But what happened to the 52-year-old from the Cologne district of Porz-Ensen is actually not funny at all.

Thomalla had ordered a package from shipping giant Amazon “and specified a neighbor’s address as the drop-off location because I wasn’t at home,” as he explained to express.de. The package was supposed to be delivered on June 4th – and it was, but in a rather bizarre way.

“During the course of the day, I received the message that the package was on its way and would be delivered the same day,” says Thomalla. And indeed – just a short time later, the message came: Her package had been delivered, complete with photo evidence!

This, however, caused astonishment: “I thought I was seeing things wrong: contrary to my instructions, he had chosen the paper bin as the delivery location!”

At least the package – with goods worth around 100 euros – remained undamaged, and the contents were not damaged either. The garbage collectors had not even emptied the bin by the time Thomalla got home.

And the man from Cologne even means well with the unknown delivery person. “In retrospect, it occurred to me that the special delivery location could also have something to do with the fact that on that very day, a two-and-a-half-ton bomb had been found near my street, which had to be defused, so the entire area had to be evacuated.”

So did it have to happen quickly because the public order office was putting pressure on us to evacuate? It’s impossible to explain in hindsight.

There seems to be another explanation, as other reports show. The 52-year-old from Cologne knows it too: “These days, it no longer seems to be about reliably handing over a package, but rather about getting rid of it, even if that means putting it in the trash.”

Problems with packages are certainly not an exclusive Amazon problem. A father recently told express.de that he was frustrated with Hermes.

Is that why he’s swearing off Amazon? No. “I’ll continue to order from Amazon and hope that the recycling bin doesn’t become a permanent delivery location.”

By Thomas Werner

The original of this article “Cologne residents shocked after Amazon courier’s actions: “It’s just about getting rid of it”” comes from Express.de.