No, you generally cannot keep a package that was delivered to your address but addressed to someone else. The law treats those contents as another person’s property, and holding onto them once you know they aren’t yours can be prosecuted as theft. There is one narrow exception, and it turns on a single detail: the name on the shipping label. If the package is addressed to you and you never ordered it, federal law lets you keep it. If it’s addressed to anyone else, it isn’t yours.
Why It’s Not Yours to Keep
When a carrier drops a package at the wrong door, the contents still belong to whoever ordered them. Taking possession of property you know belongs to another person and refusing to return it meets the basic definition of theft in every state. It doesn’t matter that the box arrived through no fault of your own. What matters is what you do once you see the name.
Opening the package makes the situation worse. An opened box suggests you meant to claim what was inside rather than return it. Leaving it sealed and untouched is the simplest way to show you weren’t trying to keep it. Once you’ve confirmed the name on the label isn’t yours, your job is straightforward: get the package back to the right person or to the carrier that delivered it.
Federal Exposure for USPS Packages
Misdelivered items carried by the U.S. Postal Service carry a heavier legal risk. Federal law makes it a crime to take, conceal, or keep mail or packages that belong to someone else, with a penalty of up to $250,000 in fines, up to five years in prison, or both.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 1708 – Theft or Receipt of Stolen Mail Matter Generally2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3571 – Sentence of Fine That’s a federal felony.
A separate statute criminalizes opening someone else’s mail. Taking a letter or package that hasn’t yet reached the addressee and opening it with intent to snoop or interfere with delivery carries up to five years in prison on its own.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 1702 – Obstruction of Correspondence The Postal Inspection Service investigates these cases at the federal level.
The One Exception: Something You Never Ordered
The scenario where you can legally keep an unexpected package is when it’s addressed to you but you never ordered it. Under federal law, merchandise mailed to you without your prior request is treated as an unsolicited gift. You can keep it, use it, throw it away, or do whatever you want with it, and you owe the sender nothing.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 39 USC 3009 – Mailing of Unordered Merchandise Congress created the rule to stop companies from shipping products to people and then billing them for items they never asked for.
One nuance: the federal statute covers merchandise that was “mailed,” which technically means sent through the Postal Service.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 39 USC 3009 – Mailing of Unordered Merchandise For unordered items arriving via UPS or FedEx, the federal rule doesn’t directly apply, but most states have consumer protection laws that extend similar rights regardless of carrier. As a practical matter, no seller will successfully demand payment for something you never ordered.
The line is whose name is on the label. Addressed to you, not ordered? Yours. Addressed to someone else? Not yours, no matter how appealing the contents.
One related situation worth flagging: if unordered packages keep arriving with your name on them, that’s often a brushing scam, where a seller uses your address to post fake reviews. The items are yours to keep under the unsolicited-merchandise rule, but the bigger concern is that a stranger has your personal information, and the Postal Inspection Service and FTC both publish guidance on the steps to take.5United States Postal Inspection Service. Brushing Scam6Federal Trade Commission. Got a Package You Didn’t Order? It’s Probably a Scam
How to Return a Misdelivered Package
The right steps depend on which carrier delivered the package. Look at the shipping label.
USPS Mail and Packages
For mail or small packages delivered to the right address but bearing someone else’s name, write “Not at this address” on the item and put it back in your mailbox or a USPS collection box. Don’t erase or cover the existing address.7USPS. How Is Undeliverable and Misdelivered Mail Handled The carrier will pick it up and reroute it.
If a USPS package was delivered to the wrong address entirely, the instructions differ slightly: put it back in the mailbox or hand it directly to your mail carrier, and don’t write anything on the package.7USPS. How Is Undeliverable and Misdelivered Mail Handled For larger packages that won’t fit, call your local post office or schedule a free package pickup on the USPS website.
UPS
Call 1-800-PICK-UPS and tell them you received a package addressed to someone else. They’ll send a driver to collect it. Have the tracking number from the label ready.
FedEx
Visit the FedEx contact page and use the virtual support assistant to report a “package not mine” issue. FedEx will open a case and arrange pickup.
Amazon
Report the delivery through the Amazon app or website, or contact customer service if the package has an Amazon shipping label. Amazon often tells you to keep or donate the item rather than arranging a return, but that decision belongs to the sender, not to you.
If You Already Opened It
People tear packages open on autopilot, especially when they’re expecting a delivery of their own. If you opened a misdelivered package before noticing the label, intent matters. The federal mail obstruction statute requires that you opened the package “with design to obstruct the correspondence, or to pry into the business or secrets of another.”3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 1702 – Obstruction of Correspondence An honest mistake doesn’t meet that standard.
What matters now is what you do next. Repackage the contents as best you can, note on the outside that it was opened accidentally, and send it back through the appropriate carrier. The longer you sit on opened merchandise that isn’t yours, the harder it gets to argue the opening was accidental.
Your Duty While the Package Is at Your House
Until the package leaves your hands, you’re what the law calls an involuntary bailee. You didn’t ask for possession, but you have it, and that carries a duty of reasonable care. You don’t need heroics, but you can’t leave the box out in the rain or let your dog chew through it either. If the package is damaged through genuine carelessness while sitting on your porch, the owner could hold you responsible.
The standard is modest: treat the package the way a reasonable person would treat someone else’s property. Keep it somewhere dry and safe until you hand it off. The fact that you didn’t ask for it works in your favor. Courts generally hold involuntary bailees to a lower standard of care than someone who agreed to hold property, so liability typically requires gross negligence rather than minor lapses.
What Keeping It Could Cost You
Beyond the federal penalties for USPS packages, keeping a misdelivered package from any carrier can trigger state criminal charges. Every state treats this as a form of theft, and most divide misdemeanor from felony theft by the value of what was kept. Those thresholds vary, roughly from $500 to $2,500 depending on the state. An expensive item that looked like a harmless windfall can push the charge into felony range.
Civil liability is a separate track. The intended recipient or the sender can sue to recover the value of the property. And the risk isn’t theoretical. Carriers track packages with GPS, delivery photos, and signature records. If the owner reports the package missing, the carrier’s records show exactly where it was left, and your doorstep is where the trail ends.