You're reading: Man ships himself in crate to steal valuables from delivery truck

A resourceful Ukrainian thief has found a novel way to steal goods from a parcel-delivery truck.

The man packed himself in a wooden crate and asked his accomplice to send him from Dnipro to Kharkiv by biggest private delivery company in Ukraine Nova Poshta, according to a Kharkiv Kominternovsky District Court verdict published on March 22.

In the truck, the man got out of his crate, opened boxes with a knife and stole a Toshiba Satellite Pro laptop, an Apple Watch Sport, two Xiomi phones, and several other items. He repacked the boxes with scotch tape he’d brought with him.

The culprit, however, wasn’t able to make off with his loot – a Nova Poshta worker discovered the hidden thief in Kharkiv, took him out of the crate, and brought him to the police.

Nova Poshta did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It is still unknown how exactly the crate with a human inside got past the mail clerks in Dnipro and how the postman in Kharkiv managed to detain the culprit.

A Kharkiv court stated the total value of the stolen goods was $500. Most probably, however, this was the total declared cost, rather than the real value, as even the simplest Apple Watch Sports option costs $330.

Charged with theft, the man could have faced up to three years in prison, but the court let him off with a two-year suspended sentence because he had pleaded guilty.