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Parts for drone sent to student in error

NOAA employees testing a PUMA drone in September. NOAA

One amazed user of the Reddit website asked a rather unique question Monday —
“Did I just get a drone in the mail?”

And for the most part, the answer was yes.

The Reddit user, who goes by the name “Seventy_Seven” and who said he is a student at a college in the Northeast, was expecting a weight-lifting bench in the mail, according to comments on his Reddit thread.

“Both boxes had UPS labels with my name and address,” wrote Seventy_Seven, who did not identify himself. “Though an odd box, I genuinely thought it was parts for the bench I ordered, since I wasn’t expecting a freaking drone.”

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The boxes contained the bench, and parts for the drone.

The user posted pictures of the contents on Imgur, an online image hosting service. One of the boxes appeared to include a control panel and wing.

David Miller, a spokesman for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said the outfit’s aircraft operations center had shipped one unmanned aircraft system in eight boxes.

The parts were to be sent to NOAA’s Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary in Scituate, but ended up in the hands of Seventy_Seven.

“It seems UPS delivered one of the eight boxes to the wrong address, a box containing only the wings and a control device,” said Miller.

Miller said NOAA is working to get the parts back to the intended destination.


Jacqueline Tempera can be reached at jacqueline.tempera@
globe.com
. Follow her on Twitter @jacktemp.