An Amazon delivery driver is urging folks to thoroughly inspect boxes they receive from the online retail giant prior to bringing them inside their homes. But why?
Keez (@keegotlevi) shared a skin-crawling anecdote about the time she peeped inside the vehicle a fellow Amazon driver was using for their route. It seems that the driver in question was working as part of the website's Flex program, which allows employees to use their own vehicles.
What she saw made her want to shake, pat down, and smack every Amazon package delivered thoroughly outside of her home.
The delivery driver begins her video recording herself from the interior of a car. She speaks into the camera lens, urging folks to thoroughly check their deliveries.
"If you got an Amazon package and you get your package, please make sure you throw your package. You toss your package, shake your package, to make sure ain't nothing in your package," Keez says.
She goes on to share an anecdote explaining why she's urging folks to exercise caution with the items they get in the mail. A fellow delivery driver, she says, who she saw getting ready for a round of deliveries, was prepping them in a "filthy" car.
"The lady's car is so nasty, y'all. Like, roaches, in the daytime. Crawling in the car. She's putting the packages in the car and it's roaches, y'all," Keez says. "So if you get a package from Amazon, please throw your package make sure ain't nothing in y'all package."
To emphasize this point, she begins to shake something beside her off camera that makes loud, crinkling noises.
"Her car had to be infested with roaches, y'all. The fact that they are crawling around in your car in the daytime," she reiterates. "And you're just putting people's packages in the car...roaches like boxes...cardboard stuff."
Keez then calls on Amazon to have stricter rules regarding Flex drivers' vehicles. "Y'all, Amazon gotta do something about this," she says. "Check y'all packages, I'm telling you. Throw it, slap it, whatever you gotta do, get that out your package before you put it in your house."
According to this pest control company, Keez is on the money when it comes to insects loving cardboard boxes.
An article penned by the business details a list of ways folks can prevent bugs from shacking up inside their belongings. It states that when it comes to long term storage and moving, plastic is your friend in the fight against pests.
And that's because sealed plastic containers are much better at keeping out moisture than a more permeable material such as cardboard. The website states: "When it comes to pests, cardboard boxes are not your friend. Cardboard is susceptible to moisture and humidity and attractive to many types of insects."
This also isn't the first time an Amazon employee has hopped on social media warning folks about bug infestations, either. In July, a warehouse worker shared that one of the company's Kentucky shipping facilities "was shut down in order to inspect [it]...for bedbugs."
Which meant that delivery drivers could've unknowingly been spreading bed bugs to all of the customers on their routes. When Amazon spoke with The Daily Dot, however, they said two separate pest control companies verified there were no bed bug infestations.
Other folks online have warned Amazon customers about bringing roaches into their homes via the company's packaging. One Redditor penned a post to the site's r/GermanRoaches sub. In it, they wrote: "Beware of Amazon packages," adding that "many warehouses are infested with" German roaches.
Like Keez, they're warning folks to think twice before bringing these cardboard boxes into their houses.
They write: "Many warehouses are infested with them and they hitch rides all the time. They are attracted to cardboard boxes to eat the cardboard and it's also a perfect hiding place. I recommend opening your packages outside and never bringing the cardboard inside. Not every package will have hitchhikers but why take the chance."
@keegotlevi Tell your family members , friends, neighbors , co workers … EVERYBODY‼️
♬ original sound - Keez&Levi
Numerous commenters seemed just as grossed out as Keez was upon seeing her video.
"They need to implement car inspections," one user on the app stated.
Another imagined, in what seems like horror, if the driver worked for another delivery business. "Imagine her doing door dash," they penned.
One commenter shared the way they minimize the risk of bringing pests inside of their home. "Them boxes get opened outside my house lol," they stated.
Someone else believed they were a victim of a cardboard roaching: "I saw a roach the other day after not seeing one in my house for over 10 years, couldn’t figure out, until I realized it could be packages I get."
In fact, one customer said receiving unsanitary packages from Amazon has affected their patronage with the brand. "Yup. I’ve stopped ordering from Amazon because if it wasn’t the bed bugs, then it’s roaches, or just pure dirt," they wrote.
One TikToker asked Keez to report the roach driver. "Make sure to report it to HR that's got to be a violation they can escalate to corporate on your behalf," they penned.
Keez responded, writing that she already did: "I did report her & assigned parking spot she was in."
The Daily Dot has reached out to Amazon via email and Keez via Instagram DM for further comment.
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The post ‘I’m opening them outside from now on!’: Amazon driver issues PSA to customers about the packaging appeared first on The Daily Dot.