The National Ocean and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recently tried to mail a drone
from an Air Force base in Florida to one of its own animal
sanctuaries in Massachusetts. A fairly simple procedure, you might
assume, but also one that involves some pretty clear oversight
since the remote-controlled device in question is worth
upward of $400,000.
Somehow, one of the boxes of parts was delivered to the wrong
address.
“I wasn’t expecting a freaking drone,”
explained the lucky guy who received a free Puma All
Environment Unmanned Aircraft yesterday along with some
weight-lifting equipment he ordered from Amazon. He goes by the
alias “Seventy_Seven” on Reddit, and there isn’t much known about
him besides the fact he’s a college student nowhere near
Massachusetts and has no time for
aquatic wildlife monitoring equipment since he’s busy
getting ripped on his new bench set.
Seventy_Seven posted pictures of the package on the discussion
board site and asked people to help him figure out what the heck it
was, since it contained only the drone’s wings and control panel. I
can only imagine that at the same time, wacky sitcom-esque
head-scratching ensued at the Stellwagen Bank Marine Sanctuary
where employees thought they were done assembling a sweet new
wingless drone, only to look with disappointment at the picture on
the box.
The Reddit user assured, “the label on the exterior was
addressed to me. Nothing on the outside of the crate said it was
government property.”
Vice was the first to pick up the story yesterday and
contacted NOAA spokesman David Miller, who “said he wasn’t sure
when the drone was mailed but thinks it must have been in the past
few days,” and
blames the United Parcel Service (UPS) for the mix-up since
seven other packages of Puma parts made it to their correct
destination.
“I can tell you that it didn’t come from us addressed to him,”
Miller insisted yesterday, adding that NOAA was “working with UPS
to find it.”
Apparently, Seventy_Seven was more resourceful than the federal
agency: He updated his Reddit post saying that he squared away the
issue and found Miller’s contact information before Miller could
find his.
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