Amazon installed a clutch of metal lockers outside a Fresno gas station convenience store built in 2019 so customers could pick up packages they didn’t want delivered directly to their homes.

But City Councilmember Miguel Arias saw a problem: the hub of lockers was placed along a poorly lit side of the building, out of sight of security cameras. It wasn’t hard to predict that thieves would try to break into them.

“I don’t know how they landed on a gas station,” Arias said of Amazon’s decision to install the lockers. “It’s where you get a beer on your way home after hours, not a place where you go to get your $500 iPhone.”

Fresno is not alone in experiencing frustration with Amazon lockers. The company has installed them across the country to thwart so-called “porch pirates” who scour neighborhoods, looking for valuable booty in the form of Amazon’s easy to spot cardboard delivery boxes.

In Chicago, for instance, the installation of a large block of lockers on an open sidewalk in the middle of a city park drew particular derision from locals.

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