Which Locker 18?
A delivery notice says the parcel is in Locker 18, and the apartment complex turns out to have four of them.
The message said my parcel was in Locker 18. It did not say which locker wall.
Our complex had one in the lobby, one beside the parking garage, and a new “smart delivery zone” behind Building C. Each contained a Locker 18. None accepted my code.
The delivery app showed a photograph of a gray metal door. Every locker was a gray metal door.
I called support. A recorded voice asked me to stand near the locker and enable Bluetooth. I stood near the lobby wall. Nothing. I walked to the garage. Nothing. At Building C, the app announced that I was getting colder, which was true because it had started raining.
A courier found me circling the courtyard and examined the photograph. He recognized a small sticker in the corner. “Old lockers,” he said, pointing toward a narrow passage behind the recycling room.
There was a fourth wall. Locker 18 opened immediately.
Inside was a box large enough to hold a microwave. It contained one USB cable and enough paper padding to explain a minor forest.
The next day, management emailed a map of all parcel lockers. The map itself was delivered as a password-protected attachment. The password was posted beside Locker 18.
They did not say which one.
Cover photo: Unsplash.