The Pume drone was supposed to be mailed to the Stellwagen Bank Marine Sanctuary

May 6, 2014 09:15 GMT  ·  By
Reddit user Seventy_Seven recently received parts of a government drone by post
   Reddit user Seventy_Seven recently received parts of a government drone by post

A Massachusetts college student has just had parts of a government drone worth $350,000 (€252,150) delivered straight to his doorstep in what appears to be a mailing mixup.

The student, who uses the moniker Seventy_Seven on Reddit, says that UPS delivered the package on Monday afternoon. He initially thought it was a weightlifting bench he had ordered, but was surprised to discover that the box actually contained parts of a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Pume drone, used to monitor oceanic activity, measure ocean debris, and conduct seabird surveys.

The Reddit user explains on the social networking website that he suspects that the wrong delivery is due to a simple error made by one UPS employee, who probably grabbed one too many boxes.

“Nothing on the outside of the crate said it was government property. I had ordered a weightlifting bench (which I received) and this came with it. Both boxes have UPS labels with my name and address. Though an odd box, I genuinely thought it was parts for the bench I ordered, since I wasn’t expecting a freaking drone,” Seventy_Seven writes.

The student said that when he called UPS, he was told that the box was one of the undelivered packages in their office. It was indeed addressed to him, but no one knows how this mistake happened.

According to Slashgear, NOAA sent the package from their operations center on MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida. Apparently, the box contained the drone's wings and a control panel, and should have been delivered to the Stellwagen Bank Marine Sanctuary in Massachusetts.

“We sent one of our Puma unmanned aircraft systems to Stellwagen Bank Marine Sanctuary in Massachusetts. We sent a set of about eight boxes for this one aircraft system, and one was misdelivered by UPS. We’re working with UPS to find it,” David Miller, a spokesperson for NOAA, told Vice.

The images posted by the student on Reddit in Monday afternoon quickly attracted thousands of viewers and comments. Many curious users were wondering what the drone was supposed to be used for and who the intended recipient was.

The drone is a Puma model, capable of flying for approximately two hours at a time within a range of approximately eight miles (13 km). The unmanned aerial vehicle is five feet (1.52 meters) long and has a 9.2-foot (2.8-meter) wingspan. It's designed to be launched by hand and can reach an altitude of up to 10,000 feet (3,000 meters).