Don’t worry, I have context to this.
I’ve (18M) been wanting to order a specific item, but I don’t want my parents to find out what it is.
Our neighborhood has these mailboxes which are locked so it’s not like I can just order it to my neighbors house and grab it out their mailbox whenever it comes.
My parents have informed delivery through USPS and that’s the only thing this item ships through. So if i ordered it to my own house my mom would get a email telling her something is coming in my name to the address and she would question me about it.
So I instead have been thinking of ordering it to the neighborhood right next to me, they have regular mailboxes, so when it comes I could just go and grab it out of their mailbox and take it back home.
I don’t know if I should just knock on the door of the address I’m shipping it to before I order it and ask if it’s okay, or if i should do it after and just say along the lines of “hey, I had something ordered here, it’s in your mailbox would it be okay if I take it out?”
Thanks guys
Comments
📣 Reminder for our users
>1. Check the rules: Please take a moment to review our rules, Reddiquette, and Reddit’s Content Policy.
>2. Clear question in the title: Make sure your question is clear and placed in the title. You can add details in the body of your post, but please keep it under 600 characters.
>3. Closed-Ended Questions Only: Questions should be closed-ended, meaning they can be answered with a clear, factual response. Avoid questions that ask for opinions instead of facts.
>4. Be Polite and Civil: Personal attacks, harassment, or inflammatory behavior will be removed. Repeated offenses may result in a ban. Any homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, or bigoted remarks will result in an immediate ban.
🚫 Commonly Asked Prohibited Question Subjects:
>1. Medical or pharmaceutical questions
>2. Legal or legality-related questions
>3. Technical/meta questions (help with Reddit)
This list is not exhaustive, so we recommend reviewing the full rules for more details on content limits.
✓ Mark your answers!
>If your question has been answered, please reply with
Answered!!to the response that best fit your question. This helps the community stay organized and focused on providing useful answers.I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
Don’t you have friends? Ship it to them
Can you order it to a friend’s house? Ordering it to a random address is sketchy as hell and if you miss the delivery you’re going to have to knock on the door and ask the homeowner for it which will be super weird. As far as asking before hand, most people are going to assume it’s something illegal and tell you to do one.
Is the item a cylinder that you are very attached to?
Legally taking something out of some else’s mailbox would be theft of mail, which is a felony. There may be cameras, or the mailbox owner may be there waiting on the mail.
You should be able to temporarily rent a PO box at your local post office.
Or have it shipped to a friend’s house (ask in advance in case the friend’s parents have the same type of notifications).
There’s laws about things like this. Different countries have different laws. Different subnational divisions, such as state and provinces, may have different laws. You should concentrate on figuring out the law where you live.
Pretty sure thats a crime. Could be considered trespass and property theft if its sent to someone else’s house. You could try having it sent to a UPS store or get a PO box for just a month. Or a friend even
Definitely do not ship something to someone’s house without their permission. They may not appreciate it, and they also may not hand over the package if they don’t. The trouble of trying to get the package back from them would be far more than if your parents saw it.
You could ask them ahead of time, but they might think it’s weird. However, if they say it’s okay, then they say it’s okay, and if you trust them, go for it–I still wouldn’t do it because even if my neighbour said yes, I don’t know that they won’t try to keep it anyway.
As others have mentioned, can you ship it to a friend instead? I did this on occasion in high school when I did not want my mom or my sister to see a package of mine.
It is a federal crime to take access a mailbox that isn’t yours. So unless you make an arrangement with the homeowner ahead of time, don’t do this.
Can you put a USPS hold on your personal mail, then go pick it up at the post office? Or rent a PO box for a month? At 18 you might even want to keep it permanently.
That’s something that happened to me. Not shipping items to someone elses house intentionally. My neighbor had like a $500 box from sephora sent to my address instead of hers, i was at home she came over after and asked me if i had it, we laughed and shot the breeze and she gave me a $10 gift card to a local coffee house for the confusion. Just tell them when you ordered it, that was the address that was auto selected and apologize. A little gift for the trouble might be nice too
The only time I’ve heard of someone doing this they ended up using it to commit a crime.
Does ups let you pick up from their stores? I feel like getting it delivered to one of their stores instead of your house was an option. I could be wrong though.
Get a PO box bro. That’s what they are meant for.
You may want to check about the informed delivery part but can you just have your pocket pussy shipped to the post office? Do you work?
Aren’t there lockers nearby where you could ship those items ?
If you drive out to the country and find one of those groups of mailboxes. If you pick an unused address between two legitimate ones, and install your own mailbox, it will receive mail.
My friends and I as kids tried this for fun like a quarter century ago.
You should be able to rent a PO box for a month, it’ll cost around 10 bucks…
Have it sent to your local post office, you pick it up there.
Well, what if THOSE people use informed delivery?
Also, it is illegal to go through someone else’s mailbox.
If in the US you can arrange to have it sent to the post office and pick it up there, though you will probably have to sign for it. Pop in and ask what their policy is
If the item is available from Amazon, couldn’t you ship it to one of their public lockers?
Buy it on amazon and have it shipped to a pickup locker. You can uber to the locker if its that important.
Talk to someone you trust and arrange it with them.
It’s a federal felony to take something out of someone else’s mailbox without their consent. You’d be looking at possible time in a state penitentiary.
Furthermore, it used to be (I’m not sure if it still is, but it used to be) that if you received a package you didn’t order, it’s yours. This law was made because unscrupulous companies would send people things they didn’t order, then bill them for the items, threatening legal action if they didn’t pay. S
o even though you ordered and paid for the item, if you shipped it to their house in their name without having an agreement about it, I think it would legally belong to them. So if they fold you to eff off, you wouldn’t have any legal recourse to get the item.
But it from somewhere you can pick it up from a location with id. My latest purchase through UPS gave me the option to pick up at a UPS associated store or shop.
Wtf your parents have informed delivery. I thought that was for people addicted to drugs on the dark web. Which I totally never was….
Sure. Drug dealers do it all the time.
Use General Delivery at your local post office. You will have to provide ID when you pick it up.
It’s a federal offense to open a mail box that doesn’t belong to you, even if you only plan to take mail addressed to you
Just order the fleshlight
Get a PO Box.
You can have something shipped to the post office itself and they will hold it for you until you show up with an ID to pick it up.
https://faq.usps.com/s/article/What-is-General-Delivery
I have used this service a number of time during long travel.
You can get almost anyone to agree to let you have something delivered to their address or in care of them. However, it doesn’t mean that if your name appears on it that UPS might not still send an email. I would talk to someone you feel comfortable talking to and ask them if you pay for it would they order it and then give it to you when it comes in taking your name off of all paperwork? Make sure it’s somebody you trust because otherwise they could take the money and you know a month later say haha. You didn’t give me anything so bear that in mind. Make sure it’s somebody that you’re comfortable talking to can explain what your concern is so it needs to be someone you feel safe. Isn’t that going to go back to your parents? And I’m guessing that this is an item that is legal for you to own. Just you’d be embarrassed if your parents knew. But I don’t see any reason why you can’t do it that way. But to be safe I would find someone to actually order at you pay for it and they give it to you when it comes in. It’s the one absolute way to make sure that somehow your parents don’t find out about it
You can sometimes have things sent to General Delivery at your post office.
Is it from Amazon? I think you can get Amazon delivered to Walgreens, Micheal’s and maybe Staples stores.
Honestly if there’s this much concern about anyone in the house knowing about it, I question whether you should be ordering it in the first place.
DO. NOT. Send it to a random address and then go take it. Screwing with other people’s mailboxes is a FEDERAL. CRIME.
Do not grab anything out of anyone’s mailbox. Don’t even touch it. If you’re in the U. S., that’s illegal. Mailboxes are actually as good as federal property even though the homeowner typically installs and pays for them.
Two avenues:
If this is going to be something you do more than just a 1 off, just rent a PO Box at a post office.
Opening someone else’s mailbox and taking anything out of it is a federal crime. Try to send it to a friend’s house
You can order anything to any destination.
But if I find out where you are, I’m stealing your recreational chemicals.
Kidding. Just get a PO box. You’re old enough.
There are drop box’s at CVS
I had this happen to me: strange packages arriving at my house and disappeared before we got home, we had informed delivery. We figured it was likely a brushing scam. We ended up taking the recurring packages to the post office and said no one lives there by that name. Told the kid sent to pick up the package that we did took it to the post office and will continue to do so.
So in short: ask before doing this.
So that’s literally mail fraud you can’t just take stuff out if other ppls mail box. At least get consent from a friend or neighbor.
The next step should be: find a way to move out soon. You’re getting too old for worrying about mom seeing your mail.
If you have an ID you can order it to General Delivery, City State ZIP code and it will go to the post office for 30 days. Go in, show id, say I’m here for general delivery, they’ll ask how long it’s been since you checked – say you just ordered something from China and out the door you go.
What are you ordering at 18 that your parents are going to care about? You’re an adult spending your own money… From your other comments it sounds like you’re getting a dildo or something lol.
Easiest option is order to a USPS depot or pickup point, offer your brother $10 to run you the 4 miles up the road.
Also the informed delivery… how exactly does that work. Reading online it sounds like it should be for your mom only unless she has signed up for notifications about your stuff. In which case a quick email to USPS informing them that you want your name removed from her informed delivery should be pretty easy.
Doesn’t matter if she signed you up or doesn’t see you as an adult. You are an adult and have the legal right to have your name removed or blocked.
Taking something out of a person’s mailbox is a major felony and you will go to prison if you get caught. Do not do this!
Mail it to a friend with pre approval, or go buy a shipping address from your local mailbox store (if any exist in your area)
Send ot to a friends house or go rent a PO box
Notta good idea .
Where are you ordering from? Is USPS the only shipping option? If it is get a PO box or have it sent general delivery.
Man, don’t mess with that. Go get you some real human tail.
Mail to yourself “Your Name, General Delivery” at a nearby post office. I believe they’ll hold it for 30 days. GoogleAI says double check with that post office first.
Its meant to be an infrequent service, else you’d need to rent a Post Office Box. There are private PO Box services too.
People on long hikes mail food to themselves General Delivery at post offices maybe 5 days apart.
Also people moving to a new town without an address yet might use General Delivery for moving some stuff.
Send your bong to your friend’s house- the one with the cool divorced mom.
Are there no local stores you can just drive to and buy this “item”?
You can rent a PO box and go pick it up at the post office
Ship to General Delivery to the post office and collect it there. Check with PO to make sure they will do that, not all do.