UPS Lost a Man's Nearly $700,000 Inheritance—And Offered $32 as Compensation

[ERD50]

I remember a deal several years ago where a guy working in a commercial area on a Saturday sees a FedEx truck pull to the side of the road, the driver gets out and puts a box into the bushes then drives away. The guy goes over and looks at the box and sees it’s open and there is $32,000 inside. He calls the police who start an investigation.

The police work with Fedex security and setup the driver. They place a similar type box with money in it on his route. Sure enough he takes the bait. After loading his truck in the morning he is seen (CCTV) putting the box into his personal car before he left on his route. He comes back later for lunch goes into his car and opens the box. He gets arrested and fired.

The original money was drug money being shipped from the east coast to the west coast so the odds of the shipper or receiver turning up at FedEx to make a claim are next to nothing. I just wonder how many other drug money boxes he had stolen before he was caught.

How did the driver know the box contained money that would not be claimed if lost? If it was drug money being shipped, how would the driver know? And if he were in on it, and stealing it, I'd think he wouldn't be alive long.

-ERD50

 

[fidler4]

He probably figured out how to profile the packages similar to what law enforcement does. At airports law enforcement uses profiling to identify drug couriers. The same theory is used to profile boxes containing drugs or drug money. The driver probably watched how it was done then decided to do it himself and if he opens a box that wasn’t drug money then he simply re-tapes it and delivers it as usual. If its got cash he is good to go.

As far the drug dealers they would probably assume it was confiscated by the police and would just write it off as a cost of doing business. They would have no way of knowing what happened to the money unless they called up and asked which they aren’t going to do.

 

[Alan]

When I retired my 401k provider would only issue a check and send it to my address on record. Working with Vanguard I had the provider have the check made out to them FBO my IRA account. Once I received the check I then Fedex’ed it to Vanguard to an address where it was signed for. My wife’s 401k provider wired the funds directly to Vanguard.

This year my son’s 401k provider would only issue a check, but they did make it out to Vanguard and did mail it to them. (USPS regular mail to the Vanguard PO Box)

The scariest we had was when we sold our house in Baton Rouge, and it was scary because we didn’t expect it. On the day of closing we turned up at the appropriate office to complete the process and were handed a cashier’s check for almost $250k. We were incredibly nervous leaving the building and driving to the bank to deposit it.

 

[MRG]

When I retired my 401k provider would only issue a check and send it to my address on record. Working with Vanguard I had the provider have the check made out to them FBO my IRA account. Once I received the check I then Fedex’ed it to Vanguard to an address where it was signed for. My wife’s 401k provider wired the funds directly to Vanguard.

+1 Exactly the same process I used,likely from a different provider.

IIRC Their overnights go to the Devon Park building, as opposed to the mail center.

 

[tinlizzy]

I shipped a well packaged case of wine some 300 miles to San Francisco. I got a notice that some of the bottles had been broken. I asked where were the rest of them? I was told the rest were broken on the return. I never saw them.
I took them to small claims court and got a $1200 judgement against them. I am almost positive someone broke open the case and drank the wine.

UPS doesn't allow person to person alcohol shipments.

Funny thing about discarding damaged wine from an approved shipper, it can't be poured down the drain. If there's any liquid left it has to be mixed with kitty litter and disposed of.

 

[Souschef]

UPS doesn't allow person to person alcohol shipments.

I was shipping it to a licensed wine store.

 

[tinlizzy]

I was shipping it to a licensed wine store.

UPS does not allow a person to ship alcohol.

I think you and Karen1972 are confusing the UPS Store with UPS. The UPS store is an authorized shipper like Kinkos is for Fed Ex. They are independently owned stores and from reading your stories it sounds as if they like to keep the refund and items returned by ups.

 

[Hermit]

Same here. Only this thread is making me even more nervous. The last couple of years, the 401k fund was not keeping up with Vanguard fund so I am in the process of rolling it over to Vanguard. The checks were mailed to me and I have mailed them on the Vanguard. Its still "in the mail". One of the most annoying things about moving money out of Voya (formerly part of Orange), the 401k manager, is that they always sit on any distribution check for almost a week before the send it. It disappears from the account immediately and shows up in my mail box about 10 days later.

I am happy to say that the checks actually made it through USPS. Not on time, of course, but made it none the less. They were supposed to be there Saturday but didn't get to Fort Wayne until Monday.

The checks are at Vanguard, but not yet posted to my accounts. I don't know if they have to wait for them to clear. Should be in the next couple of days. The funds were withdrawn from my 401k on 12/4 and will be in my account 12/19 at the earliest. Pretty close to 2 weeks using snail mail.

 

[meierlde]

I am happy to say that the checks actually made it through USPS. Not on time, of course, but made it none the less. They were supposed to be there Saturday but didn't get to Fort Wayne until Monday.

The checks are at Vanguard, but not yet posted to my accounts. I don't know if they have to wait for them to clear. Should be in the next couple of days. The funds were withdrawn from my 401k on 12/4 and will be in my account 12/19 at the earliest. Pretty close to 2 weeks using snail mail.

Note if you are old fashioned and deposit a personal check to vanguard, in addition to the mail time, you will see your check clear at your bank, and then show up in the money market fund a day later as they say they have to convert the funds to federal funds.

 

[Hermit]

Note if you are old fashioned and deposit a personal check to vanguard, in addition to the mail time, you will see your check clear at your bank, and then show up in the money market fund a day later as they say they have to convert the funds to federal funds.

That's interesting. I have heard of converting funds between country denominations, but not between US banks and federal funds.

 

[meierlde]

That's interesting. I have heard of converting funds between country denominations, but not between US banks and federal funds.

It seems that federal funds are traded between banks with excess reserves in the evening and night, so that means if VG gets the check, and it clears in the same night due to the timing of the daily close of Vanguards and the banks books it could take an additional day.

 

[Hermit]

It seems that federal funds are traded between banks with excess reserves in the evening and night, so that means if VG gets the check, and it clears in the same night due to the timing of the daily close of Vanguards and the banks books it could take an additional day.

It certainly would not help Vanguard to delay the process. With moving money to Vanguard from Voya, I'm pretty sure Voya is more than happy to slow the process down as much as possible. Somebody gets that 2-week float!

 

[MRG]

It certainly would not help Vanguard to delay the process. With moving money to Vanguard from Voya, I'm pretty sure Voya is more than happy to slow the process down as much as possible. Somebody gets that 2-week float!

Ding ding.

In the early 90's I was asked to look at a cash management system a part of Megacorp ran on a very large shared system. The purpose of the system was to determine how much cash Megacorp could legally keep to collect the float on.

My VP told me the cash management system was to use discretionary cycles, his workload came first. It's an emergency just fix it. No problem boss, I'll get it changed! A half an hour later our work runs first, cash management gets discretionary cycles.

Next morning I get a call from the VP of the cash management system. You've cost us 150k! He's Po'ed and chews on me. I finally get to tell someone to talk to my VP.

I never saw a new large dedicated system purchased that quickly.

Obviously float is worth less today. But those systems are already in place and don't eat much.

 

[Texas Proud]

Ding ding.

In the early 90's I was asked to look at a cash management system a part of Megacorp ran on a very large shared system. The purpose of the system was to determine how much cash Megacorp could legally keep to collect the float on.

My VP told me the cash management system was to use discretionary cycles, his workload came first. It's an emergency just fix it. No problem boss, I'll get it changed! A half an hour later our work runs first, cash management gets discretionary cycles.

Next morning I get a call from the VP of the cash management system. You've cost us 150k! He's Po'ed and chews on me. I finally get to tell someone to talk to my VP.

I never saw a new large dedicated system purchased that quickly.

Obviously float is worth less today. But those systems are already in place and don't eat much.

I will give you one... this was back in the 70s or early 80s.... a guy worked for a bank and they would get some large checks... someone would calculate how much the float was worth and if enough they called some company.... so the guy drives to the airport and watches a jet land, taxi up to him and he hand them the check... they take off to the city of the bank that it is written... they present it to the bank so funds can transfer that night... well, the funds were for more than the total assets of the bank!!! The company that wrote it was planning on taking the float and had not funded the account... they had to scramble to get cash to the bank to honor that check...

 

[Hermit]

I am happy to say that the checks actually made it through USPS. Not on time, of course, but made it none the less. They were supposed to be there Saturday but didn't get to Fort Wayne until Monday.

The checks are at Vanguard, but not yet posted to my accounts. I don't know if they have to wait for them to clear. Should be in the next couple of days. The funds were withdrawn from my 401k on 12/4 and will be in my account 12/19 at the earliest. Pretty close to 2 weeks using snail mail.

The saga never ends... Vanguard put the funds in my accounts. Unfortunately, they did not get one of the two accounts correct. They put it in my inherited IRA instead of my traditional IRA. Say, maybe I should have just let it go. DW was 10 years younger than I and RMDs are not until she would have turned 70.5. Oh well, I called them and they are going to get it put where it should have been put in the first place. Maybe me highlighting the account number where it was supposed to go got them confused.

 

[MRG]

The saga never ends... Vanguard put the funds in my accounts. Unfortunately, they did not get one of the two accounts correct. They put it in my inherited IRA instead of my traditional IRA. Say, maybe I should have just let it go. DW was 10 years younger than I and RMDs are not until she would have turned 70.5. Oh well, I called them and they are going to get it put where it should have been put in the first place. Maybe me highlighting the account number where it was supposed to go got them confused.

Well you know good help is hard to find at $15.00 an hour. Glad they're making you right.

 

[Danmar]

In which case this makes about as much sense as stuffing a brown envelope with 750K worth of cash and shipping that, does it not?

Yes, I would agree. There are procedures for cancelling a bank draft if lost, but they can be onerous, ie providing an indemnity and perhaps security for a period of time.