UPS Left Daughter's Big Christmas Present In Trash Can, Mom Claims

Here's a tip for delivery personnel everywhere: If you leave a customer's package in the trash, you better be absolutely sure it's not trash day.

In an unfortunate chain of events, a Missouri mother is claiming that an Android tablet bought as her daughter’s Christmas present was left by UPS in the family's trash can.

Tracey Sole, of Barnhart, Mo., said she learned of the ill-advised delivery location last week when she found a UPS InfoNotice in her mailbox with a handwritten message that read, “In Black Trash Can,” reports local Fox affiliate KTVI. When Sole checked the trash can in question, however, she found its contents had already been picked up by sanitation workers.

"It was awful," Sole told KTVI. "Probably the worst thing."

While UPS did not immediately respond to The Huffington Post's requests for comment, a spokesperson told KTVI last week that the delivery giant had opened an investigation into the incident. The spokesperson also that if a customer is not home, UPS drivers will sometimes leave packages in a hidden location, "out of sight and protected from inclement weather."

After the Fox story aired, Sole was approached by multiple strangers offering to replace the Christmas present, or at least give Sole enough money to buy a new one, reports Yahoo! News. Sole said she did not accept any of these offers and suggested instead that donations be made to the Toys for Tots charity program.

In a long comment posted to the KTVI website on Dec. 13, someone identifying herself as Tracey Sole wrote that UPS had apologized to her for the incident and agreed to send her a new tablet in time for Christmas.

Accident or not, the case of Sole's trashed tablet is only the latest delivery horror story to surface over the past few years. Last December, a surveillance camera caught a seasonal UPS worker stealing an iPad Mini left on a homeowner's doorstep by FedEx. And speaking of FedEx, who can forget the delivery man who in 2011 was taped throwing a customer's computer over a gate?