quote:

Originally posted by CPD SIG:

With the time lapse, and the "not original" condition the box was in when you got it, I'm betting that it was a UPS employee that went "OH SHIT, THEY'RE GONNA GET ME!" and boxed your watch back up.

I'm glad that you got your watch back and I hope bad stuff happens to whoever "borrowed" your watch.

Totally agree as this makes the most sense. The UPS ee probably learned it would have been a felony, loss of job, pension, etc.

My certified letter to the CEO of UPS arrived at their HQ today (5/7). I sent it on 4/29 and the US mail took their time getting it to Atlanta.

I can't wait to share my thoughts about the "loan" of my watch to one of their ee's.

I am so so happy for you that you got your watch back. It takes a week to mail something across town in Atlanta so the delay does not surprise me.

That potato got way too hot. Yeah, they boxed it back up and slipped it onto the truck.

They were hoping for an insurance payout and it just go away while they sell their thievery.

This ain't their first rodeo and now the eye of Sauron will be scrutinizing every missing package for years back.

quote:

Originally posted by CPD SIG:

quote:

Originally posted by h2oys:
The story is not over yet.

I shared the pictures of the watch, all four sides of the exterior box,how it was wrapped, with Sangamon Watch Company. The owner told me one end of the exterior box had been opened based on how it was taped. He also added the watch itself was in tight sealed plastic before it was put in the plastic box, then bubble wrapped, popcorn was added, and placed in the exterior cardboard box. That was not the case on my end.

We are pretty confident a UPS employee stole my watch and was probably either planning on keeping it or might’ve been trying to sell it. We are guessing that loss control caught up to the person and they quietly re-wrapped it, and sent it on its way.

It makes a lot of sense given the fact the last time it was scanned was on 4/17 and it wasn’t scanned again until today 5/6.

It is definitely my watch because I can tell by some of the honest wear on it so I have my original watch back. That’s the main thing that matters!

Thank you once again for all your kind thoughts/wishes sent my way.

With the time lapse, and the "not original" condition the box was in when you got it, I'm betting that it was a UPS employee that went "OH SHIT, THEY'RE GONNA GET ME!" and boxed your watch back up.

I'm glad that you got your watch back and I hope bad stuff happens to whoever "borrowed" your watch.

That is undoubtedly what happened. Hopefully, that individual is investigated and at least fired if not prosecuted. Thieves are scum.

It will certainly be interesting to see what kind of response you get from your letter to the President/CEO of UPS. Also the letter Sangamon Watch Company sent out.

They probably will fluff you off, but Sangamon is a commercial enterprise and probably ships quite a bit through UPS and they may be more forthcoming with them.

When I worked for the Company that shall not be named… we shipped out around $12MM - $15MM per year in UPS shipments. We shipped a lot, and I mean a lot of packages. The last year we shipped with UPS, we shipped almost half a million packages. Of that, we had more than a few damaged each week and some did just come up missing. Probably two a month.

While UPS takes theft seriously, lost and missing packages are common. Take into consideration that the UPS World Hub (Air Packages)in Louisville Kentucky (which I was fortunate enough to get to visit) processes around 2 million packages each day. UPS handles around 22 million packages each day, the majority being here in the US.
Your average distribution center most likely loses and or mis-delivers a few packages per day. If they have a success rate of 99.995% which is pretty amazingly successful, that means they would lose 1100 packages per day.

I’m not making light of the lost/stolen watch, but I don’t think UPS is investigating it too much further. There may be a follow up at the local distribution center, but again, think of how many packages they process daily. They investigated it, it wasn’t found, then it was delivered. Case closed, and on to the next issue.

Just as well, in the corporate world, (especially after the Brian Thompson issue) I don’t think a letter to the CEO of a $91 Billion company will be opened by him. I’m certain he has a mail room that handles such things, and only specific senders make it to his desk.

Again, not trying to rain on your parade, but I also think we should have realistic expectations.

I am really glad you did get your watch back though.


_{Edited for spelling and grammar…}

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Beancooker,

Since the Omega Speedmaster seems to be the current topic in this thread…

Thanks Beancooker. That was an incredible Speedy on Antiques Road Show!

As to my letter to the CEO of UPS, I did some research and she sounds like a good person. Do I expect a personal response? No, but I bet she has a team who's purpose is to address such in UPS's eyes, minimal items.

For example, in my many years as a customer of ATT/DirecTv, I had the need for help and it was just like UPS. A gigantic autonomous machine that is designed to shut down any actual person to person contact. AFter I sent a letter to the President, the "office of the president" immediately replied. If I had any issues thereafter I simply use that same contact and things get done right away versus me calling the 1-800-getscrewed phone number and wasting away for hours.

The Earth City depot where my watch was temporarily stolen, handles one million packages a day. Your right, even with an almost perfect record, that means a lot of packages go missing.

However how many go missing because an employee stole them, should be a matter of concern to them. And my case is very easily proven by the fact not only was my package opened while under their care, custody, and control, the watch was completely unwrapped and physically handled.

If I were Carol Tome, I would want the UPS I lead to find the culprit so it doesn't continue to happen. Not just by "my thief", but others that might follow his/her lead for the lure of easy money.

Like you said, I have my watch back with, just teasing now, some foreign and unrecognizable arm hairs stuck in the band.

Arm hairs for DNA analysis! Lol. I'm glad you have your watch back, but some people are just shitty.

But the dot is not over the 90.

Hopefully you don't mind updates on my "lost" Speedmaster.

I heard back from UPS today. Here is what they said:

__________________________________________

Greetings Norman,

My name is Shonetta, and I am a Corporate Customer Relations Manager at UPS. I am reaching out to you in response to your recent letter addressed to our UPS Executive Leadership Team.

I do apologize for the confusion with the delivery of your package. Especially when it contained a watch that is so special and cannot be replaced. I attempted to reach you by phone this morning but was unable to connect to the number provided in your letter. Upon reviewing the tracking details, our records indicate the package was found and delivered on May 6, 2025.

If you did not receive that package or you still need assistance with this delivery please respond to this email.


Sincerely,

Shonetta B
UPS Corporate Customer Relations
CustomerRelations@ups.com


_______________________________

Now here is my reply:

Good Morning Shonetta,

Thank you for your reply to my letter. Not sure what happened as to your phone call, but rest assured, I’ve been at my desk all morning.

Either way, per my letter the watch was first to be delivered on Thursday 4/17. I watched the truck stop at my house that day on the UPS app to drop off one package but the truck did not go to my neighbor’s home to drop off the watch and obtain the necessary signature. Hence I left the office and tracked down the truck in another part of my subdivision. The driver said he saw my note on my front door and noted the fact I used the app to change the delivery to my neighbor who was home and waiting for the delivery. However, he stated my box was not on his truck.

Since that date I filed a police report with the Chesterfield Police dept and the St Louis County Police dept.

My watch was simply missing. Then all of a sudden on 5/6, a whopping 20 days later and the box having never been scanned since 4/17, showed as out for delivery. I spoke with the driver and we examined the exterior of the box. There were no other labels or anything to indicate it was misdirected.

Before opening the box, I took pictures of the exterior and more while I was unwrapping the watch. Then I sent copies of the pictures to Sangamon Watches. The owner, Brian Su who has been copied with this email, replied he had personally wrapped and sealed the box. He added the box had been opened and the watch had been removed from the interior plastic safety box. Then it had been re-packed and the box re-sealed.

That means someone, while my watch was under the care, custody, and control of UPS, intercepted my box, opened the box, removed the watch and retained the watch for 20 days. What they may or may not have done to my watch I don’t know. Were they wearing it and/or showing it off to fellow thieves? Had they visited pawn shops to show it and sell it (note I had people calling many St Louis pawn shops during those 20 days to inquire about buying a vintage Omega Speedmaster watch to hopefully short stop that possibility)?

My guess is either the UPS employee’s conscience got the better of them, and/or, the watch was too “hot” and they did not want to be charged with a felony for stealing my watch.

This entire experience has been an emotional train wreck for me. I am sure my father was rolling over in his grave and perhaps his ghost had something to do with getting my watch back.

My questions to you are:

• Do your employee’s know when a box is “high value” and insured?
• Would you recommend that Sangamon Watch Company not have their business name on the label?
• Do you have anyone on camera stealing my watch?
• Is there an active investigation to find the thief?
o If yes, what will happen to the thief when you find him/her?
• Where was and what happened to my watch during the 20 days?
• Since my watch was freshly serviced by Sangamon Watches, who is responsible if something goes wrong with it due to the potential of abuse which may have taken place during the 20 days?

I will look forward to your reply.

_________________________________

I am very curious as to how they will respond!

I'm so glad your watch was recovered and returned to you! While I'm not sure it's now possible (due to contamination issues), the law enforcement agency could have conducted attempts to recover DNA from the packaging or even the watch itself, if they were so inclined. The costs for this kind of processing are far less than in past years and an investigator responsible for handling this case could follow up on it in this manner.

Besides identifying a specific employee involved in this crime, other (less tenacious) victims might be discovered and there's always a chance that their (still missing) property could be recovered and returned to them. While it's totally understandable for you to drop the prosecution aspects, at least consider them and discuss them with the investigator on the case. He/she might want to jump on this as the violations do involve crimes that are FELONIES.

Meantime: Enjoy the watch and it's history!

I'm glad you finally got your watch back

I suggest you drop this with Shonetta, you'll only give yourself a headache and possibly ulcers

quote:

Originally posted by BigSwede:
I'm glad you finally got your watch back

I suggest you drop this with Shonetta, you'll only give yourself a headache and possibly ulcers

I think you are right. I need to move on. Here was Shonetta's reply:
_______________________________

"To clarify the matter regarding high-value shipments, when a declared value of $1,000 or more is entered, two copies of a High Value Receipt is printed and must be signed by the driver. One copy is for UPS records to serve as confirmation to ensure the shipment is handled under high-value protocols. The other copy is for the shipper to retain for claim purposes if needed. You may request to view this receipt for your shipment from the shipper. Additional information regarding this policy can also be found in our Terms and Conditions on our website.

If you believe you have evidence to support that an employee wore or attempted to sell your watch, you are certainly entitled to take any action you feel is in your best interest, based on the information you possess.

I have also been informed that the center's management team has escalated your concerns to their security department. A member of that team is expected to contact you directly."

As much as we all believe there was likely some foul play here, we don't have any evidence that can't be easily explained away. And if they have any evidence they are certainly not going to turn it over to you, even if they caught someone redhanded and fired him. There's not enough evidence for the police to get a warrant for any further evidence and they wouldn't for an item with this value anyways.

And none of that even mentions that you now have your watch. Shipments get delayed all of the time for legitimate reasons. This can easily passed off as just that.

Very happy it made it back to you after all.

quote:

Originally posted by YellowJacket:
As much as we all believe there was likely some foul play here, we don't have any evidence that can't be easily explained away. And if they have any evidence they are certainly not going to turn it over to you, even if they caught someone redhanded and fired him. There's not enough evidence for the police to get a warrant for any further evidence and they wouldn't for an item with this value anyways.

And none of that even mentions that you now have your watch. Shipments get delayed all of the time for legitimate reasons. This can easily passed off as just that.

Very happy it made it back to you after all.

Except for the part where the owner of the watch company verifying that the packaging did not match how it left their possession. Which would indicate tampering at some point between leaving Sangamon & arriving at h20ys.

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:

quote:

Originally posted by YellowJacket:
As much as we all believe there was likely some foul play here, we don't have any evidence that can't be easily explained away. And if they have any evidence they are certainly not going to turn it over to you, even if they caught someone redhanded and fired him. There's not enough evidence for the police to get a warrant for any further evidence and they wouldn't for an item with this value anyways.

And none of that even mentions that you now have your watch. Shipments get delayed all of the time for legitimate reasons. This can easily passed off as just that.

Very happy it made it back to you after all.

Except for the part where the owner of the watch company verifying that the packaging did not match how it left their possession. Which would indicate tampering at some point between leaving Sangamon & arriving at h20ys.

"The small package fell in a gap on the edge of the conveyor belt and the original box was thrashed so bad you could see inside components of the package. It would not have survived well the rest of the journey so we carefully repackaged it. You're welcome."

UPS has REPACKAGE stickers if boxes are damaged and resealed.

Picked up this Duxot last week. It's kinda like my CW 12 or an AP Royal Oak homage. Another budget friendly watch.

It's 40mm and heavy.