Shock: Post Office delivers veteran's ashes to wrong family
SHELTON, Wash. - A local woman was shocked when the U.S. Postal Service mistakenly delivered an urn to her containing the ashes of a military veteran that belong to a family living more than 1,000 miles away.
Karen Smith of Shelton said the drama unfolded when the package came in the mail this week.
She opened it, expecting to find a product her family had ordered online. The product was there all right, inside a damaged box - but just underneath was the urn of a U.S. military veteran belonging to someone else.
"And I read 'Dad' and the dates on it. I thought, 'Oh my God,'" Karen says.
She contacted the KOMO News Problem Solvers to help her locate the family that was supposed to receive the ashes, and we went to work.
KOMO News learned that the original package ordered online by the Smith family had been damaged.
When that happens, the Postal Service says, the package is re-wrapped at the processing center into a new box. Only this time, a man's urn and dog tags were wrapped up, too.
"I don't know why it came to me. Everything happens for a reason," says Karen.
She says the product they had ordered "looked like a Mac truck had run over it." It had to be repackaged at the main Post Office Center in Seattle.
And that's when a red pouch containing an urn was gently - but mistakenly - wrapped inside along with it, then sent on to Karen Smith's family in Shelton.
As Karen opened the package and heard the jingle of dog tags, she recognized the sound. It's an important symbol for her, a part of a military family.
"It represents freedom. It represents all the rights I have walking on the face of this earth," she says.
Those dog tags were the only clue to who "Dad" was.
KOMO News has learned that they belonged to Randal L. Irwin, who was a geologist outside of San Diego after getting out of the service.
Karen says that makes the mistake worse.
"Mixing things like that up? That's uncalled for," she says.
She doesn't know who sent the urn or where it belongs. She just wants a safe return.
"I would hope that anybody would do that, you know, and not just discard it because it wasn't part of their belongings," she says.
There's no doubt in her mind she'll be able to "return to sender."
"We will. I am a woman on a mission," she laughs. "That's ashes in that urn. But that's still a human being in spirit."
KOMO News has reached out to the Irwin family to try to help learn where the urn should have gone, and Karen has as well.
We also are trying to get more answers from the U.S. Postal Service about how this happened.
Karen Smith of Shelton said the drama unfolded when the package came in the mail this week.
She opened it, expecting to find a product her family had ordered online. The product was there all right, inside a damaged box - but just underneath was the urn of a U.S. military veteran belonging to someone else.
"And I read 'Dad' and the dates on it. I thought, 'Oh my God,'" Karen says.
She contacted the KOMO News Problem Solvers to help her locate the family that was supposed to receive the ashes, and we went to work.
KOMO News learned that the original package ordered online by the Smith family had been damaged.
When that happens, the Postal Service says, the package is re-wrapped at the processing center into a new box. Only this time, a man's urn and dog tags were wrapped up, too.
"I don't know why it came to me. Everything happens for a reason," says Karen.
She says the product they had ordered "looked like a Mac truck had run over it." It had to be repackaged at the main Post Office Center in Seattle.
And that's when a red pouch containing an urn was gently - but mistakenly - wrapped inside along with it, then sent on to Karen Smith's family in Shelton.
As Karen opened the package and heard the jingle of dog tags, she recognized the sound. It's an important symbol for her, a part of a military family.
"It represents freedom. It represents all the rights I have walking on the face of this earth," she says.
Those dog tags were the only clue to who "Dad" was.
KOMO News has learned that they belonged to Randal L. Irwin, who was a geologist outside of San Diego after getting out of the service.
Karen says that makes the mistake worse.
"Mixing things like that up? That's uncalled for," she says.
She doesn't know who sent the urn or where it belongs. She just wants a safe return.
"I would hope that anybody would do that, you know, and not just discard it because it wasn't part of their belongings," she says.
There's no doubt in her mind she'll be able to "return to sender."
"We will. I am a woman on a mission," she laughs. "That's ashes in that urn. But that's still a human being in spirit."
KOMO News has reached out to the Irwin family to try to help learn where the urn should have gone, and Karen has as well.
We also are trying to get more answers from the U.S. Postal Service about how this happened.
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