Scanned them maybe at the warehouse? Doubt a Verizon employee took it.. surely they get free phones etc (no idea btw if they do). I imagine at the processing facility it was scanned and removed. Would be my best guess at least

Weird how they could even know it’s a phone. Where I live my new iPhone gets sent in a large box that is absolutely not marked. Not even the senders name (Vodafone) is on it. Not even as the return name.