A householder in California was baffled when he opened an unexpected FedEx package he found on his porch and discovered it contained 11lbs (5kg) of marijuana.

George Burton, of Sacramento, said the box, which contained $24,000 worth of the illegal drug, was left on his doorstep while he and his fiancée were at work.

"We start opening it up and it's filled with that packing Styrofoam, the spray-in stuff that's hard to get through," Burton said. "We break into it, I look, and say, 'This isn't what I think it is.'"

Investigators suspect that drug traffickers used Burton's details at random and intended on picking up the parcel immediately after it was dropped off, but something went wrong with the plan.

"I'm really concerned someone is going to come looking for this," Burton said. "People have got hurt for a lot less than $24,000 worth of marijuana."

After turning over the package to police, Burton and his fiancée moved out of their home temporarily to be on the safe side.

A sign posted on his front door reads: "Kinkos/FedEx Box Given to Sac Police."

"Don't use my house any more," Burton said in a message to the box's sender. "Go find somewhere else to drop off your marijuana."

In March, the global courier company FedEx was sued by a Massachusetts woman after it delivered a package containing 7lbs of marijuana then passed her address to the addresses who showed up at her door.

California