You're waiting for an important package to be delivered. Or for the furnace repairman to arrive. Or the cable guy. Their companies can't tell you exactly when they'll be there. So you pace. And hope you're not in the bathroom when someone rings the bell. Because a serviceperson won't circle back, you'll have to call and make another appointment.

Delivery drivers won't leave the package without a signature. Or they will leave it, increasing the risk that it will be swiped by porch pirates.

But what if these package deliverers and others had a way to unlock your door (legally and with your permission), set the package inside or do the repair, and then leave your house as secure as when they entered? And what if you could monitor the action via a video camera? And what if there were real-time notification?

That's the idea behind Amazon's Amazon Key service rolling out this month in Chicago, the Twin Cities and 35 other cities. Amazon says its delivery people will be "thoroughly vetted." But we all know that's not a foolproof guarantee.

Still, we applaud Amazon for seeking to fill what we've always considered a huge, inexplicable void. That is: Deliveries generally happen during the day, when many people aren't home. In the ideal world, delivery would take place when people are available. If Fed Ex and its ilk can track a package every step of the way from Beijing, how come they don't know that you're not home?

We've waited for an innovative tech guru to offer exclusive nighttime service. Say, from apres dinner to 10 p.m.? When people are home to sign for important packages. Yes, we'd pay extra for that.

FROM AN EDITORIAL IN THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE