Reading this story should make everyone think twice about sending something valuable through one of the several parcel services.

The article, written by Maria Perez and presented on Newsweek.com, is about how…

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

As with so many of the stories I present links to here, you should read ’em if they intrigue you, but as always, I’ll spoil things a little bit here by going into the article.

So here’s the thing: A Canadian man has a nearly $1 million inheritance.  He agrees to have the money delivered in a bank draft and sent to him via UPS and, well, the bank draft is lost in the proverbial mail… and, hilariously, UPS offers to refund the shipping fee for the loss.

Here’s the thing: A bank draft can be turned in by anyone.  It is not like a check where you can cancel it and issue another.  Someone, somewhere, might get their hands on that check and, viola, get their hands on the money on it.

So far, no one has done this and, it strikes me, the Bank could figure out a way to flag someone illegally trying to cash in that bank draft and issue a new one for the gentleman whose money they’re withholding because of that.

I suspect the gentleman in this article will eventually get his money, but of course he’s gotta go through those idiotic hoops before the bank finally figures out the proper way to do this.

At least I hope he does!