DID YOU GET YOUR ZAPPOS BOX?:

"Wow, this is amazing," Mabey thought to himself while pulling the items out of the box in his Dresden Road driveway. The goodies included a hat, neck warmer, sunglasses, socks and a backpack.

Those very same items -- and many more -- were delivered overnight to more than 1,800 Hanover homes by 35 Zappos.com employees, company spokeswoman Kelly Teemer said.

Two theories of why Zappos.com chose to deliver the packages solely to Hanover residents spread like wildfire on social media Tuesday morning. Some Upper Valley residents thought maybe it was a mass-marketing push by the company. Others thought it was a reward or gift to loyal customers.

The latter proved true.

Hanover residents' order rate topped those of equal-sized towns, so the company chose to give back, Teemer said.

"We identified Hanover as a (town) filled with fiercely loyal customers," Teemer said via email on Tuesday. "These packages were delivered to show our appreciation to these customers."

Teemer declined to provide specific statistics, including how many Hanover residents had placed orders on the website and how that compares to residents in other towns. Hanover, which has 2,136 single-family homes, also is home to Dartmouth College, an institution of 6,300 students. [...]

The police department had no idea Zappos.com employees would be storming the town early Tuesday morning, Dennis said. At least two residents called dispatch shortly after midnight saying there were suspicious people in dark clothing scampering around their yard with flashlights.

If the calls had continued to pour in before dawn, Dennis said his officers may have had to put a stop to the deliveries, but Zappos.com employees continued on with the operation.

"It's not a crime," Dennis said. "On a big scale, it wasn't that bad."

The employees ultimately unloaded four vans and a trailer full of gift boxes to about 85 percent of homes in Hanover, the spokeswoman said.

Hanover Town Manager Julia Griffin was aware that Zappos.com would be making the gift drops -- but didn't know that "elves would be delivering packages without our police department knowing," she joked on Tuesday.

"I just figured it would be done the good old-fashioned way," Griffin said, noting that she thought Zappos.com employees would address packages to Hanover residents and send them via UPS, USPS or FedEx.

"I didn't know elves would descend on the town," she said.

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