KEY POINTS:
- Australian expats receive care packages from home ahead of Christmas.
- An Australian woman in the US was shocked to find what was in her package before Christmas.
- Australia Post was unable to provide details on what may have happened to the package
Her three children were eagerly awaiting their grandmother’s package in Australia, expecting some of their favorite products from home, including cookies and candies, which were in the packaging.
“We believe customs had opened the package to inspect it and put the wrong things back in,” Eastley said.
These were the items sent to the Eastley family in Alaska instead of the Australian food they were expecting. Source: supplied
The US Postal Service (USPS) website confirms that customs officers can open international packages for examination, stating that “after customs processing, the customs officer will repackage and seal the mail.”
Ms Eastley wasn’t sure if the skull was real, but said she couldn’t find any kind of trademark stamp. It also had some dirt on it.
Australia Post was unable to provide details about what may have happened to the package when contacted by SBS News, other than to confirm that its system had registered the package arriving in the US in early October, almost two months before it was delivered to family in Alaska.
An animal skull was not what this Australian family expected in their care package from home. Source: supplied
Ms. Eastley said she had emailed the USPS about the strange delivery and planned to take the items to the post office after Christmas, when the queues had died down.
December is traditionally the busiest month of the year for parcel delivery in Australia and Australia Post expects to handle tens of millions of parcels this month.
