A retired veteran and postal worker missed his funeral after his remains were lost in the mail delivery process. The ashes of Richard Nelson, who once served in the Navy, remain missing.
INDIANAPOLIS – A veteran and retired postal worker missed his funeral after his remains were lost in the mail delivery process.
The ashes of Richard Nelson, who once served in the Navy, remain missing.
Years after leaving the military, Nelson headed for Arizona and left specific instructions to his family on how he wanted services handled following his death.
In July, the funeral home in Arizona mailed Nelson’s remains on August 1, and the tracking number stated it was to arrive in Indianapolis August 2.
Remains of veteran, former postal worker lost in mail delivery
And I quote, “Years after leaving the military, Nelson headed for Arizona and left specific instructions to his family on how he wanted services handled following his death.”
This fake news story did not disclose that in keeping with the spirit of his former employer, he “Requested” that his ashes be lost in the mail to be later found behind a cabinet 25 years later…
not to worry nellie, when our nixie crew gets hold of you we will use our favorite stamp “found in supposedly empty equipment” and all will be right with the postal world. Trump get rid of that Obammy holdover Muffin IOD Meghan Brennen! FIRE HER!
worked in the reg room over 25 years, never a problem…….until they started with this express mail crap, oh my, now express priority mail lol.the place is like a 747 at 30,000 feet that lost all 4 engines……..on a downward glide slope into the ground. the guy caused his own problem by not requesting UPS or FDX! ps since this Function 1 Scheduler crap express mail is delayed every day, hundreds of them left behind every night. the place is going down the tubes at an alarming rate!
I used to be a registered mail clerk in a large facility. Absolutely true that cremated remains were no longer allowed through registered mail. Because they aren’t expedited, stopping all along the way for checking in, then checking out. ( should never ever be lost ) I thought that to be troublesome due to the fact that although express mail would be expedited, it could be easily damaged. In registered mail, these items were handled with the most of care. We would even hand label the dispatch as “fragile, handle with care.” Never let anyone know what was inside, that was the rule, but labeling it did alert those signing for the dispatch to be extra careful on this one. ( no one wants a broken urn ) We did the same for every item listed as fragile. I’d always thought the customers were not aware of the time this took and would schedule funerals way sooner than needed to be when having remains sent this way.
The remains were sent in a large envelope, not a secured box.
Another media source said…the envelope had a label saying: Cremation and the envelope shown to be opened. The clerk didn’t follow Postal Policy on handling remains.
Human remains are required to go Express mail!
They scanned my order as delivered but the carrier was never on my driveway or my porch.
when I go I’m using FedEx
Paul, have to add a correction to your reply. Cremated remains are required to be sent via Express Mail, no longer Registered Mail. This has been in effect for several years. Since the receipt stated it was to arrive the next day in Indianapolis from the Arizona mailing location, it would have had to have been Express Mail. In addition, they are to be sent in a separate Express bag with an indicator label that states “Cremated Remains”. I think someone should be checking Express bags !
I could rant about this all day long, but management does not listen. They are totally indifferent to the needs and expectations of the customers their commercials bravely try to bullshit viewers otherwise. Local management varies from office to office, region to region, state to state. But once you get to the District and Area levels, look out. For the public, that means the poobahs in the offices where they make all the decisions, or more accurately pass down commands from Area and national offices. There is almost no autonomy left in any individual office – postmasters and supervisors are almost powerless to make decisions by themselves. That is bad news because it means people who do not come in contact with the customer, totally forgot their own days as clerks or carriers, and are otherwise oblivious to the day by day functions where real work is done make the decisions that literally fuck up the whole system thanks to their arrogance and stupidity, not to mention their unstated objectives, getting as much performance bonus money as they can skim.
So the word to the public is this from a retired letter carrier: we want your business, but until PMG Brennan and other cutthroats like her are history, NEVER rely on the USPS for any truly critical shipment of any kind. It is full of cut rate workers who are not paid enough to do any better, overworked people who make tons of mistakes like this horrible incident, and the situation shows no signs of improvement. This terrible story needn’t have happened, and it’s a damn shame.
Human remains are now mandated to be mailed Express Mail. That is why it was guaranteed to be delivered the next day.
Pay the man’s family overtime until his remains are found!!
Good work guys
The human remains need to be sent registered which significantly slows down delivery. Chain of custody is the only way to handle irreplaceable things. Priority mail doesn’t cut it. Even if traceable, to an extent, the machines are not perfect and things do get damaged and/or lost.
The service changed their recommendations regarding human remains from registered to priority, this is the result. It’s embarrassing.
I believe the new rules say that Express Mail, or Registered Mail can be used for cremains.