Walking 40km? Man delivering $3,000 worth of mobile phones on foot goes MIA

Courier services are a convenient way for businesses to deliver their products to customers, but what happens when your assigned walker ends up walking away with the goods? 

That's what happened to Shijin Jawahar Sait, the owner of OnePhone, a mobile phone shop located along Race Course Road. 

Last Sunday (Nov 6), Shijin posted on the shop's Facebook account about a Lalamove delivery man who allegedly went "missing" after picking up five mobile phones that were meant for delivery. 

Including photos of the delivery man from his shop's CCTV, Shijin urged others to "be careful when you send goods using Lalamove in the future, especially if [they are] high value items". 

Shijin told AsiaOne that the delivery man, identified as Edmund, collected the goods from his shop at about 8.13pm on Sunday. 

The items included Samsung and Oppo phones, with the most expensive item — a Samsung S22+ — worth about $1,000. 

Edmund was supposed to deliver the phones to several customers across the island, with the first location being Jalan Tenteram in Toa Payoh, and the final location at Woodlands. 

"After about 40 or 50 minutes, I tried to track the delivery status, but I couldn't see it on the app, and it indicated that the connection to the driver was lost," he recounted. 

In his post, Shijin also wondered why a walker was assigned for this job, as there were five delivery locations spanning a total of 40km. 

He tried to call Edmund's mobile, but the number was "not in service". 

Police report made

Shijin also tried to reach out to Lalamove for help but was told that the company had a "24-hour cooling period" to ensure that the delivery rider has not fallen ill or met with an accident. 

He said that the courier company is offering him $200 as compensation, although the value of the stolen phones came up to about $3,000. 

On the Facebook post, Shijin added that there was no vehicle number attached to the Edmund, as he was registered as a walker. 

Shijin said he has since made a police report and that he has also personally delivered a new set of phones to the customers. 

"We proactively contacted all of them to make sure that they were not dragged into this unnecessarily," he told AsiaOne. 

AsiaOne has reached out to Lalamove for more information. 

Suckered by online platform 

Just last month, a man purchased a $447 phone on Lazada for his wife, only to receive a plastic straw. 

The man, surnamed Zhang, told Shin Min Daily News that he went on the online shopping platform to purchase the phone, which he claimed was $180 cheaper than buying it from a brick-and-mortar store. 

A few days later, instead of receiving what he ordered, Zhang got a small and flat package which only contained a black straw. 

He subsequently made a police report. 

ALSO READ: 'Return the phone or we'll lodge police report': Yishun restaurant warns thief

claudiatan@asiaone.com

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