WEST UNIVERSITY PLACE, Texas — A woman in West University came across something on Thursday that caught her attention: dozens of packages on the ground in a parking lot with UPS workers standing nearby.
So KHOU 11 News set out to find out what was going on.
"I saw these packages in the middle of the parking lot behind Randalls and the post office," Nancy Gilbertson said.
She couldn't believe her eyes.
"There was a UPS truck there and a couple of other cars, so this is the first time I’ve noticed it and I couldn’t believe that they were processing packages in the middle of a public parking lot," Gilbertson said.
The picture she shared garnered a lot of attention and led to a lot of speculation as to what was happening.
So we decided to go directly to the source and contacted the UPS corporate headquarters. They had an answer to what was happening.
In an emailed statement, UPS said, "In some areas, UPS uses seasonal support drivers (SSDs) who deliver packages using their personal vehicles. These drivers wear UPS-branded uniforms and are specially trained and their vehicles are confirmed to be appropriate for their routes. These seasonal support drivers meet UPS drivers to divide packages for the best on-time delivery and the packages are never left unattended."
The answer from UPS wasn't enough to change Gilbertson's mind about using the service in the future.
"I'd prefer not to use UPS anymore," she said. "It’s not very secure. There's a lot of packages and anyone could just pull up, grab some and take off."
In a follow-up email, a UPS spokesperson said, "This is a safe parking lot, not a street. The employees are dividing up the packages based on delivery location. Using a public place like this is standard operating procedure."
Others who saw the photo online didn't think it was a big deal.