Amazon employees face the unexpected

With layoffs underway in many Amazon offices, employees have many reasons to be nervous.

But in New York, the jitters deepened Thursday morning when an Audi sedan drove up parked not far from the company's New York Entrance to the City of York office building at 450 West 33rd Street caught fire. New York firefighters extinguished the blaze in front of 50 Hudson Yards and no injuries were reported, according to a spokesperson for the New York Fire Department, who declined further comment.

The Seattle-based tech juggernaut signed the lease for 359,000 square feet of office space in 1, 8 million -square foot building many years ago.

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When asked about the fire, an Amazon spokesperson said late Thursday: "At this point, we have no additional information to share."

Like Meta, Twitter and other big tech companies, Amazon is making cuts substantial in its workforce. While Meta is laying off 13% of its staff - more than 11,000 employees - and Twitter has cut its global team of more than 7,000 employees by 50%, Amazon has yet to publicly quantify its job cuts.

Meanwhile, with holiday shopping picking up steam, some neighborhood watch groups and police departments remind buyers to protect shipments wherever possible. "Porch hacking" has become a problem for many online shoppers who have increased their purchases during the pandemic. According to a recent Security.org survey of 18,000 adults in 50 states on the issue, nearly 49 million Americans have had at least one package stolen in the past 12 months, with the median value of stolen goods being $50, depending on the company.

Meanwhile, the New York City Police Department is asking for the public's assistance in identify a 5-foot-3, 7-inch woman with fair skin, who was driving an Amazon delivery truck in Brooklyn on the afternoon of October 29. After exiting the vehicle to deliver packages to a house on 58th Street and 13th Avenue, the person removed and opened packages that had already been delivered to a nearby residence before fleeing the scene in the truck. company to parts unknown.

No injuries were reported in this major theft, according to the NYPD. The individual was last seen wearing an Amazon vest, orange hoodie and orange sneakers. All tips should be directed to the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline, via the CrimeStoppers website or on Twitter@NYPDTips.

New York City Police officials are asking for the public's assistance in identifying this individual.

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