College Student $350K Drone: UPS Accidentally Ships Drone To NY Student
A college student received a $350K drone in the mail… by mistake. According to Today, UPS accidentally shipped the NOAA drone to the New York resident who then posted about the package — and its contents — on Reddit. Said package was supposed to go to a research facility in Massachusetts but something got screwed up along the way.
NOAA spokesperson said:
“We sent one of our Puma unmanned aircraft systems to Stellwagen Bank Marine Sanctuary in Massachusetts. We sent a set of about eight boxes for this one aircraft system, and one was misdelivered by UPS… We did not mail the package to the wrong address — the error occurred on the part of UPS.”
The college student returned the $350K drone according to NewsMax, though not until he opened the package to see what was inside. While that normally would be considered illegal (opening mail that is not addressed to you), the package allegedly had the man’s name and address printed right on the front of the box. Expecting to see parts of a “weightlifting bench” that he had ordered, the student opened the box without even thinking twice. What he found inside, however, was unexpected.
“Nothing on the outside of the crate said it was government property. I had ordered a weightlifting bench [which I received] and this came with it. Both boxes has UPS labels with my name and address. Though an odd box, I genuinely thought it was parts for the bench I ordered, since I wasn’t expecting a freaking drone.”
UPS was contacted and says that they are still investigating the mix-up:
“We’re still investigating what happened, but it’s true that we had a misdelivery. We’ve already reacquired the package and will get it to the intended recipient.”
The college student photographed the $350K drone parts that he received and the photos have been circulating on social media.
Reddit user gets a surprise when $350K @NOAA drone is delivered to his doorstep http://t.co/vRFgmqzTp2pic.twitter.com/X7ZrYeyVpN
— Anthony Quintano (@AnthonyQuintano) May 6, 2014
It is unclear if UPS will face any kind of serious backlash from the government or if anyone will actually lose their job over the mix-up — it seems like it may have been an accident that just happened to occur with one very crucial piece of government property. It’s not uncommon for mail and packages to get misdelivered. If the package the student received was anything but a drone (save for a great white shark jaw), no one would have even known about it.
The $350K drone sent to the college student in this particular case was used to gather evidence of sorts. Other drones are used in the military for other purposes such as the one responsible for the death of Ali bin Likra al-Kazimy in Yemen as previously reported by The Inquisitr
[Photo courtesy of Twitter]
