But it can be a bit of an Easter Egg hunt to find where the UPS drivers leave packages during the busy holiday season. Since I live in DeKalb, I assumed it had been pawned. But, after shuffling around some bags of leaves my wife keeps telling me to drag to the curb, I found the boxes. A Missouri mom was not so lucky. Tracey Sole told a local TV station she saved up to buy her daughter an Android tablet and was shocked to find a UPS notice in her mailbox saying the gift was deposited “in black trash can.” The tablet, and her garbage, were both missing. She believes both were taken to the same place — the dump. “I was crying all night,” said Sole. “I saved for months to get that for my daughter.” The company she ordered the tablet from said it would ship her another one, but it may not arrive in time for Christmas. UPS said workers are trained to leave packages out of sight and protected from inclement weather, a practice called “driver release.” I don’t recall ever losing a package from UPS or Fed Ex. That’s a pretty good batting average. And with the number of packages they have to deliver at Christmas, there’s no other way to get the job done until Google’s robot creatures or Amazon’s drones are ready. At least I have an excuse for leaving those bags of leaves on the porch.
The legendary productivity of Santa’s elven sweatshop is unmatched by regulated industry, but UPS and other delivery drivers certainly try.
Just the other day I was sipping some nog and wondering why the fancy computer doodad I’d ordered online had yet to deck my halls with boughs of jolly. I went to the NewEgg website and a note there said my order was “left on porch.”
AJC.com
