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In Louisville, Kentucky, some people started calling 911 after spotting U-Haul trucks near their homes, WDRB.com reports.
Residents said they were worried that criminals could be dressing as UPS drivers to fool them into opening their doors.
Concern escalated when rumors circulated online claiming terrorists were using UPS uniforms to deliver bombs, according to WDRB.
More free shipping, more packages per order this holiday season
Attention online shoppers: Don’t wait until the last minute to do your holiday shopping this year.
It took an average of nearly seven days, or 20% longer than last year, for orders placed Cyber Monday to arrive, according to a study by retail consultancy Kurt Salmon. And more packages are being shipped — an estimated 2.6 per order.
A fleet of package delivery airplanes could be the e-commerce king’s next big venture.
Is Amazon.com preparing to take on the package delivery giants, as rumor suggests? And if so, what sort of upheaval would that create in the industry?
A lump of coal
It’s no secret that since the retail debacle of Christmas 2013, where customers who purchased items well in advance of the drop-dead deadline to get packages delivered by the holiday still hadn’t received them weeks afterwards, Amazon’s top priority became assuming more responsibility for delivery of its own packages.
An unexpected surge in online purchases is putting pressure on UPS and FedEx to get packages out on time this holiday season, and that could result in extra costs for retailers.
An executive at one fulfillment company – which picks and packages customer orders for retailers – told Business Insider that packages in New Jersey and California are sitting in trucks outside of FedEx and UPS hubs, and waiting several days to be unloaded and processed.
The person, who asked not to be identified, explained that shoppers tracking the package will only see that a label was created, but not that it was picked up by UPS or FedEx. That won’t happen until the package is unloaded from the trucks at the distribution facilities.
United Parcel Service is taking exception with a Wall Street Journal story that says the delivery service is straining to keep up with heavy demand caused by the surge in online orders this holiday season.
But UPS spokesman Steve Gaut said on Thursday that wasn’t the case.
While Gaut recognized that some areas were high impact spots, “the vast majority of UPS customers have received their shipment on time,” he said in an e-mail to Fortune. “UPS’s shipping network is running according to our plans and customers can expect to receive their shipments in line with the service level commitment.” Gaut would not offer an on-time rate to counter the Journal’s 91% claim.