“No Amount Of Money Could Make That Right”: UPS Loses Package With Teen’s Ashes, Offers Mom $135
A shipping service did the unthinkable and lost a package that was so valuable that no amount of money (especially not $135) could fix it: a person’s ashes.
Tangenika Lee, from Metro Atlanta, Georgia, USA, said she shipped her 15-year-old son’s ashes from a local United Parcel Service (UPS) store to a family member, but the package never made it.
WBS-TV Channel 2 located Tangenika in Hiram, Georgia, on Tuesday (January 30), where she said that she was now feeling like she had lost her child, Deontray, all over again.
Deontray died of a fentanyl overdose in 2020 at the age of 15, WBS-TV reported. In early January, Tangenika sent his ashes to her sister, who makes customized cremation urns, in Connecticut, USA.
Tangenika Lee said she shipped her 15-year-old son’s ashes from a local UPS store to a family member, but the package never made it
Image credits: WSB TV Atlanta
Image credits: WSB TV Atlanta
Weeks passed, and the ashes reportedly never arrived to Tangenika’s sister. Deontray’s remains were supposed to be at his aunt’s house by January 10.
The grieving mother reportedly said that UPS’ corporate customer service sent her a bewildering $135 check to compensate her for the loss of her son’s ashes. Unsurprisingly, it is a check Tangenika said she refused to cash.
Tangenika reportedly said she had shipped Deontray’s ashes from the UPS store in Hiram, along with some gifts. She had even informed UPS workers what was in the wooden box.
Deontray died of a fentanyl overdose in 2020 at the age of 15
Image credits: Tangenika S Lee
When the ashes failed to arrive, the disconcerted mom went back to the UPS store to ask what happened. She said the police were also there.
Tangenika recalled: “They went back into the store, and they pulled cameras from January 8th, and they told me that the package had actually left their facility. There was nothing they could do about it. I just lost it, [and I] started crying.”
Tangenika reportedly said the ashes were last tracked to a distribution center in Connecticut. She subsequently said she planned to go there herself to look for her son’s remains.
Image credits: WSB TV Atlanta
She said: “If you ask me, it’s just like a repeating nightmare. I cremated him because I had not seen him in seven whole years.
“So, I cremated him so that he could be right here with me, and we could travel together and do things together – and he ain’t here.”
The grieving mother reportedly said that UPS’ corporate customer service sent her a bewildering $135 check to compensate her for the loss of her son’s ashes
Image credits: WSB TV Atlanta
UPS reached out to WBS-TV and said that “with the time constraints, we had to investigate, [and] we found the content of the package was declared by the customer as ‘clothes.’ UPS does not accept shipments of human remains.”
“We extend our deepest sympathy to the family, and our heartfelt thoughts are with them during this time. Unfortunately, the package was lost.”
UPS’s official website lists “human remains, fetal remains, human body parts, human embryos or components thereof” as prohibited items.
People were divided regarding UPS and Tangenika’s responsibility
As a DHL parcel delivery driver and a mother and a customer: I don't understand that mother (from all three POVs) and have zero empathy for her shedding crocodile tears. She *knew* that UPS doesn't ship remains (guess why?!) and *lied* ("clothes"). Come on 🙄. Common sense tells you to let a burial company do the job or drive the ashes yourself (if it's really important to you).
Yep. This so much. The whole scenario makes no sense. Clearly she was being cheap about her child's remains for some reason. And she cared that little about it why are we to believe she suddenly cares?
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Aaand, to put some hope for mankind back into this sad thread, one story from *my* delivery company, told by "our Leia Organa", Mrs Oppermann, a tiny petite Force Of Nature™️ commanding parcels of three federal states in Germany, in front of 500 postal workers: She got a call on a Saturday afternoon: A distressed man waited for a yet undelivered parcel which he had tracked to be "still at her base"(350miles away from him!). It was a casket needed for his child's burial on Sunday 11a.m. So, two calls later, the boss of base and his 2nd in charge voluntarily sifted through each and every parcel there. "They called me some hours later that they've found it." Then a second call: "we forgot to ask, may we take one of our private cars instead of a DHL truck? We need traffic news radio and an A/C and travel through the night sharing." She approved. "The third call was at 4 a.m., that the parcel was delivered."
Huge parts of this story don't add up. She hadn't seen him for 7 years? So, she didn't have custody or what? She lied about what was in the box because shipping ashes is expensive. But NOW she wants to complain? They sent her a check to cover what she CLAIMED was in the box. If you cared that much about your child, why cheap out?
It's not even about money! I know very few communities who wouldn't donate for such a cause. Even easier if she is religious. I can't imagine any church community not donating to the cost of shipping the ashes of a child safely, no matter which other issues they might have, that's something they would do. If she couldn't afford it, she could have asked family and friends for donations, heck even colleagues, unless.... Well, a truly shady person who is untrustworthy might have problems gathering money even for something like that. So if lying and sending cheaply was her only option, then that's not a good look for her.
Load More Replies... As a DHL parcel delivery driver and a mother and a customer: I don't understand that mother (from all three POVs) and have zero empathy for her shedding crocodile tears. She *knew* that UPS doesn't ship remains (guess why?!) and *lied* ("clothes"). Come on 🙄. Common sense tells you to let a burial company do the job or drive the ashes yourself (if it's really important to you).
Yep. This so much. The whole scenario makes no sense. Clearly she was being cheap about her child's remains for some reason. And she cared that little about it why are we to believe she suddenly cares?
Load More Replies... Aaand, to put some hope for mankind back into this sad thread, one story from *my* delivery company, told by "our Leia Organa", Mrs Oppermann, a tiny petite Force Of Nature™️ commanding parcels of three federal states in Germany, in front of 500 postal workers: She got a call on a Saturday afternoon: A distressed man waited for a yet undelivered parcel which he had tracked to be "still at her base"(350miles away from him!). It was a casket needed for his child's burial on Sunday 11a.m. So, two calls later, the boss of base and his 2nd in charge voluntarily sifted through each and every parcel there. "They called me some hours later that they've found it." Then a second call: "we forgot to ask, may we take one of our private cars instead of a DHL truck? We need traffic news radio and an A/C and travel through the night sharing." She approved. "The third call was at 4 a.m., that the parcel was delivered."
Huge parts of this story don't add up. She hadn't seen him for 7 years? So, she didn't have custody or what? She lied about what was in the box because shipping ashes is expensive. But NOW she wants to complain? They sent her a check to cover what she CLAIMED was in the box. If you cared that much about your child, why cheap out?
It's not even about money! I know very few communities who wouldn't donate for such a cause. Even easier if she is religious. I can't imagine any church community not donating to the cost of shipping the ashes of a child safely, no matter which other issues they might have, that's something they would do. If she couldn't afford it, she could have asked family and friends for donations, heck even colleagues, unless.... Well, a truly shady person who is untrustworthy might have problems gathering money even for something like that. So if lying and sending cheaply was her only option, then that's not a good look for her.
Load More Replies...
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