UPS Loses Family’s $846K Inheritance, Offers to Refund $32 Shipping Fee

A Canadian man says he’s broke after the United Parcel Service lost track of his inheritance.

The intended $846,000 delivery was a bank draft from TD Canada Trust, which still hasn’t refunded the lost fortune 10 months later. Instead, UPS offered an apology and $32 to pay for the mailing costs, according to a CBC News report.

“It was a total surprise,” Lorette Taylor told CBC News. “Never in my wildest imagination did I think something like this would happen.”

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Taylor’s brother, Louis Paul Herbert, said they were finalizing the details of her father’s will last February and went to a local UPS store near Cornwall, Ontario, where he was expecting a package from his sister containing his share of the inheritance in a bank draft. But it never came.

“I’m waiting at the UPS store, around 3 p.m. because that’s when they said the guys came in—nothing shows up,” Herbert told CBC News. “I came back in the evening. Nothing shows up...and I’m wondering, ‘What’s happened to my inheritance?'”

Taylor sent the money through UPS from her lawyer about 270 miles away in Georgetown, Ontario, so Herbert wouldn’t have to worry about picking up the money. She obtained the bank draft in February after she said the bank advised it as the safest way to send the large sum. TD guaranteed Taylor and her husband, John, that the money would be replaced if the draft was lost, she said.

“They said a bank draft was more appropriate” for that amount of money, Taylor said. “Never in my wildest imagination did I think something like this would happen.”

The delivery company said the dough could not be traced.

“While UPS’s service is excellent in our industry, we are unfortunately not perfect. Occasionally, the loss of a package does occur,” spokeswoman Nirali Raval told CBC. “Our records indicate that our team followed UPS protocol and an exhaustive search for this package was completed by our Operations and Security teams. Unfortunately, we were unable to locate the package.”

The postal service refunded Taylor the $32 it cost her to mail the lost parcel and sent an apology letter, but she says that doesn’t really solve her problem.

The bank is refusing to refund the money unless Taylor signed an agreement to pay them back if someone cashes in the lost draft. She signed the agreement, but says the bank “never paid anyone a dime.” The bank also demanded she let TD put a lien against her house if the draft was cashed, but she refused.

“If the bank really wants indemnity, then UPS should sign it,” she said.

TD sent CBC a general statement that “before we can agree to a replacement or reimbursement, we need appropriate security to be in place.”

Herbert said he has maxed out his credit cards and desperately needs the money.

“TD has the money. The money is actually sitting in an account with TD. Nothing has been stolen. It’s there. That’s my inheritance,” he said, adding that if he had the cash, “I would have been retired.”