Christmas Gifts to American Soldiers in Iraq Stolen in Transit
Why Your Loved One May Not Recieve Their Holiday Gifts If Serving Overseas
A few weeks ago my Aunt, whose son is serving overseas in Iraq, and I had a great idea. We were already planning to send her son "Steve" a bunch of presents and fresh-baked goodies from home, but why should our spirit of giving stop there? We decided to send enough goodies and munchies to feed an entire Army (or, at the very least, an entire Platoon).
Seems like a great idea, right? It's too bad that not everyone shares in the spirit of giving. Somewhere along the line, an entire Platoon's worth of presents and goodies were stolen. Now my cousin Steve will not receive his gifts this Christmas.
My entire family was involved in this giant undertaking. My grandmother baked dozens and dozens of cookies and an assortment of cakes. My mom and I purchased an array of cocoa mixes, canned soups, potato chips, peanuts, and instant mac'n'cheese. My aunt bought a dozen stockings, candies, and lip balms. We spent all evening stuffing 11 stockings (one for every member of Steve's squad) and 25 gift bags. This huge shipment was meant to bring a little bit of home to the troops for the holidays.
We also bought Steve several nice gifts from each of us. We truly wanted to help him and all his friends have a wonderful holiday season, even though they're stuck in Iraq in the middle of a war.
War is always hard. Being away from family is always hard. But it's even more difficult during the holidays. So we wanted to let everyone know that we cared about them, and help Steve have a merry holiday away from home. When he at his cookies, we hoped, it would be like we were there beside him because we'd spent so much energy thinking about him and baking them in our kitchen.
However, hundreds of dollars worth of presents and shipping costs later, our carefully planned holiday packages did not arrive intact. Steve received all his boxes; however, nine of the stockings had been stolen, as well as every gift we sent for him. All that remained were the gift bags, two stockings, and a little parcel with holiday movies.
We were livid. How could these items simply disappear? It's well-known that the Army checks each package before it gets sent through, but bags of cookies and DVDs obviously don't present a threat since some of them made it all the way to Steve. So they weren't withheld for security reasons. All of his packages arrived, so we know that the stockings and gifts weren't lost in the mail. The only explanation is theft, and this isn't the first time something like this has happened to Steve.
If it were a one-time event, I'd chalk it up to bad luck and shrug it off. However, theft from packages bound for soldiers in Iraq is becoming a chronic problem, at least from what I've seen.
If you have time, I'd like to hear from others out there who ship packages to overseas soldiers, particularly soldiers in Iraq. Do your packages always get through, untampered? Have you experienced similar problems? What can be done about this issue?
I'm very angry at the situation. I love my cousin, and he deserves all the comfort and love we can give him during this difficult time. It's not fair for another person to open his gifts, take his food, and steal all of the pleasure we worked hard to send to him and to his friends.
On the other hand, as the thief is probably a soldier, I feel some sympathy. The thief is probably also having a difficult time and needs some comforts from home.
I will soon be contacting several organizations to check up on the issue of theft from care-packages sent to soldiers. When I get more information, I plan to publish a news article about it. In the meantime, let me know if you've had similar experiences. If we band together, contact the media, and contact the post office, I'm sure we can put a stop to the theft so our loved ones can enjoy the gifts we send them.
Published by Heather Leah
The most important job in the world is to teach others, whether through writing, classrooms, or friendship. It's a job we all have. I enjoy teaching others that there's more love, compassion, and magic tha... View profile
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14 Comments
Post a CommentFortunately I have never had a problem. We are on our 2nd deployment to Iraq and so far (knock on wood) not one package has arrived in less than best shape. Nothing was missing, broken, damaged, tampered with, etc. Also, my husband has managed to receive EVERY package within 10 days.. sometimes as early as 6 days and I have sent some pretty pricey items (DVD, CDs, DVD player, ipod, digital camera, new laptop, computer games, Sony Ps3 w/ games). I am so sorry to hear of everyone having bad luck. I hope things get better for you all.
I sent my fiancee his wedding ring and some other items and they were fine. He got them 11 days later; untampered. I'm sorry to hear about everything getting stolen :/. Whenever you fill out the Customs form don't write everything that's on there...My friend's mom gave me a tip to write "blanket" for any clothes(a hoodie in my case) canned food if it's heavy...and snacks if it's different kinds of food. The more bland it sounds the cleaner the sticky fingers get!
My son, Matt, is leaving for the middle east on Jan.26,2010. I'm really glad I read all of these comments so I know how to pack the many care packages I'm planning on sending him over the next 2 years.
I just wanted to let you know that the same thing has happened to me a couple of times now as well. I have tried sending a couple boxes to my boyfriend who is currently on a ship who knows where deployed. He asked me if I could send him little things that he can't necissarily get there, so I did, along with some presents and some momentos (about $300 worth of them). I received a letter in the mail from the USPS about a week later that included all of the labels from my package in it and a note saying that they had been found loose with no package attached. The letter was sent from New Jersey... I live in FL, so obviously the box went somewhere. The great thing is, all the labels, including the postage label, had obviously been razored off of the box, with perfectly straight edges on them and all of them mysteriously ended up together. I don't see how they could have just fallen (razored) off and landed on a floor all together. I contacted the post office about this, who told me that my
Cathy if you still want some Soldiers names to send packages to write to me. My email is billie.dawson@us.army.mil. I am currently overseas in Al Kut, Iraq, I run administrations for my company (511th Military Police Company), I am also a driver for my Commanders Personal Security Detail. We have about 140 Soldiers in our company and I am always looking for people to help sponsor them. Let me know.
I sent my husband a care package a month ago and he did not receive most of it either. My husband told me that the postal their told him that it was received as damaged. I bet it was damaged so that cd's and other things that my husband had specially ordered to keep him calm and less worried while there. I did insure it but am still looking for the form that I insured it with. It is very sad that the thief might be one of our own soldiers. If a thief is serving I really am worried about other soldiers and who is protecting who. I have a christmas care package to send and my husband told me to make sure it was packed by a professional packer. I really respect what they do and want them to get what we send for them. Something needs to be done about this. Please keep our soldiers in our prayers along with the incoming president that will be over them.
Hi,
I would like to know where i can find names of soldiers that need care packages. I'm afraid I'm going to get some guy's name that is the thief receiving my package meant for a real soldier. There are a lot of websites that say they send cookies and stuff....but do they really? And if they do....they want me sign up on PayPay??? I just want to send a card/cookies/things they need to someone real, not a website that sends over stuff in the name of her website. Can someone tell me of a place that I can get some legitament names to send stuff too? Thanks.......so sorry to hear of your disappointment with your package. It doesn't surprise me though, there are so many selfish people out there who think they deserve stolen goods for some reason...the only thing I can say is that someday when they really need or want something....thier payback will hit them in the face.
I have a son serving in Iraq right now, I send him a package every week. The only thing I put on the custom papers is "snacks". As far as I can tell he has always gotten everything in his packages. The only time anything has ever happened was I sent enough homemade cookies for his whole platoon, when they arrived the cookies were wet, the boxes smashed in, and the cookies were ruined. I hope I will never face what you are going through with your cousin. I would be furious if that happened to me. As with you and your family, I send and make items with love and care, hoping to put a smile on my sons face, if only for a minute to take away the situations our family members are going through. I have a list of some of his platoons birthdays down and I send them a special package for that. Dont stop sending packages, even if only half of them make it, it is worth it!
Well I have heard about this befor I was sent over sea's. I know you have to fill out custom forms befor sending the package. Here is the thing, what ever you put on that tag-people can read. I would suggest that if you have any high dollar items. Just put candy and socks on that form. Just a little hint we were told before we left for Iraq. Hope that helps out for the future. =-)
In regard to the Nov. 2006 article about theft of soldier packages, there is some info at http://www.anysoldier.com/HowToSend.cfm - scroll down the page to: Insured and Registered? BTW, why isn't there a link to www.anysoldier.com on your blog page? It's a great site to generate public support for our soldiers serving in harm's way. I look forward to your follow-up story about sending letters of encouragement and care packages to our troops. Thanks for your part in getting the word out.