I think the main problem here is that I can no longer release liability for smaller packages (which appears to be a punishment by the driver who probably caught a lot of flak and not a necessity). Most of my packages are < $50 and I'm not too concerned with losing one of those to theft. I'd happily sign a release on those. On the other hand, with this particular > $400 package, neither the shipper nor UPS decided it was necessary to require a signature. As to what happened to the package? Who knows, maybe somebody stole it, maybe it was mis-delivered and not recovered.