Delivery Driver Accused Of Stealing PS5 Fired By Amazon

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Amazon is firing a delivery driver who drove off with a customer's PlayStation 5. The next-gen console was released earlier this month to overwhelming demand worldwide. Any website that stocks the machine sees it sold out in minutes, even seconds. Fans' mad dash to get a new console resulted in Walmart's website crashing multiple times on launch day each time it tried to stock new units.

Unfortunately, it isn't just video game fans who are struggling to get a new console. Much of the absurdly high volume of traffic has been attributed to scalpers, who are using bots to fill carts with as many PS5s as they can get away with the second stock becomes available. These PS5s are then sold for a preposterous markup on websites like eBay. Unfortunately, these scalpers have seen tremendous success in keeping their inventories full. One group of scalpers in the UK reported that it currently has 3500 PS5s in stock, more than major retailers can get away with, and of course they're all on offer for a ridiculous markup.

The fervor for these new machines is getting to such a fever pitch that some people are getting outright brazen in their eagerness for a PS5. Eurogamer reports on one woman in Oxfordshire, whose son turned 16 on the PS5 launch day. The mother was lucky enough to secure a PS5 as a birthday gift, but on delivery day, a CCTV camera watched as the driver, after delivering several other packages to houses on the street, retained the PS5 in the van and drove away with it. The family confronted Amazon, who initially offered a simple gift card to mollify them. When presented with the footage of the theft taking place, however, the company promised to take more immediate action, and fire the driver responsible for the theft. At the time of this writing, the family has not managed to secure a replacement PS5.

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As treacherous as the PS5 stock landscape has been stateside, matters are even worse in the UK. Not only do they have to contend with the same outrageously low stocks, crashing websites, and high traffic, but successfully securing an order isn't even the end of the fight. Even orders that don't get outright stolen might not contain the new console at all. UK customers have reported everything from air fryers to cat food in shipments which were supposed to contain a new console, and Amazon doesn't seem equipped to handle this anomaly.

As distressing as this critical supply shortage is, it's not all that surprising. Even before the consoles launched, Xbox head Phil Spencer was predicting an utter failure of supply to meet demand for both the Series X and the PS5. This has clearly come true with a vengeance. It's depressing to see the depths to which people are prepared to sink to get their hands on the PlayStation 5, and it's even more distressing to realize that there's no real sign of when things might get better. One can only hope that that teenager in Oxfordshire has a better birthday next year.