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FedEx let California homeless man sign for music store delivery, owner says

ROSEVILLE, Calif. -- A Northern California music business said a delivery service allowed a homeless man to sign for its packages and leave with them, CBS Sacramento station KOVR-TV reports.

The alleged theft happened at The Strum Shop in Roseville. The store isn’t missing a beat, but it’s missing key merchandise meant to go under customers’ trees for Christmas.

Each week, the shop gets dozens of deliveries. A special-order guitar and ukulele were set to arrive, but owner Daniel Elliott said a homeless person camping in front of his business had other plans.

“They told me that somebody had signed for the package, and it turned out there was somebody sitting outside of our door who signed for the package, and he took one of them,” he said.

He called FedEx to sort out the problem.

“My first reaction was what crazy driver would be dumb enough to allow a random person to sign for somebody else’s package, especially when the business is clearly closed,” he said.

A FedEx representative issued the following statement:

“The described behavior is not consistent with the professionalism FedEx demonstrates in safely and securely delivering millions of packages to customers every day. We take these matters very seriously and are working with those involved to resolve the issue.”

While police are trying to track down the stolen goods, Elliott has placed a rush order in hopes the replacement instruments might make it in time for Christmas.

“The person who took the instrument was somebody that has been here regularly, and I thought we had a good relationship with this person,” he said. “I’m just really disappointed.”

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