By Veronica Haynes, Ted Wayman

    WAYLAND, Massachusetts (WCVB) -- More than 100 unopened, undelivered packages found dumped in the trash may be part of a larger scam, according to Wayland police.

On Monday, Wayland resident Lori Gols notified police that she saw four unopened packages with shipping labels still on them in a trash bin on Commonwealth Road. The next day, she called the police, saying there were more discarded packages in the trash.

"There were dozens of packages," Gols said. "I called the police right away and had them come down. Laid them all out, there were tons of packages."

All of the packages were addressed to people living in the area.

A preliminary investigation determined that the packages had been marked and documented as delivered, but residents and community members never received them, police said.

Police located more than 100 packages, which appeared to all be from the same delivery service, UniUni. Wayland police are working with UniUni to make sure the packages are properly delivered to community members.

The same situation also happened in Sudbury. Parker Bentley found undelivered packages in a dumpster near his business, Wild Birds. Bentley says he knew some of the people whose names were on the shipping labels.

"Most had shipping labels with phone numbers on them, and we started calling them," Bentley said. "Just tried calling them to come pick them up."

The person who reported the discarded packages suspects the incident may be part of a recent package scam affecting residents across multiple towns, as they had seen an influx of social media posts about individuals looking for their packages that appeared to have been delivered to the wrong addresses, Wayland police said.

"The people who do the delivery do them in their own personal cars. They pick them up and as they are scanning them, showing them a picture of the house and that’s what they are getting," Wayland police said. "To Uni-Uni, it looks like the packages were being delivered."

Sam Lo is still looking for his online orders.

"My biggest complaint is they operate as an Uber operation, but they don’t do enough background checks or a tracking system," Lo said.

UniUni is working with local police departments to ensure the packages are delivered, the company told NewsCenter 5.

However, consumer watchdogs say buyers should read the fine print when they order something online to make sure they know who the final delivery service is.

Wayland police are seeking the public's assistance and ask residents and community members who may have information about this incident to please contact the Wayland Police Department at 508-358-4721.

The department has notified the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office of the ongoing investigation.

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