It was an online appeal that tugged at heartstrings across Winnipeg and beyond, a specially-ordered gift gone awry.
In late November, Sherri Emms, who lives in Pinawa, Man. reached out on social media and on 680 CJOB to try to find a Christmas gift that was, as she was originally told, delivered to the wrong address.
Emms shared a message on her Facebook page saying a delivery service took a parcel to an incorrect address and now she is worried the gift, specially made for a family member in Winnipeg, won’t turn up in time for Christmas.
She said the parcel service was not able to give her information about where it went so she could contact themselves with the hope of getting it back.
RELATED: Newfoundland family asks for Toronto’s help finding lost teddy bear
Emms said Nov. 26 the item that went missing was not something that would be of interest to anyone else.
“It’s a blanket with family photos on it for my 90 yr old MIL,” she wrote.
Emms told CJOB that she received a message that the package had been delivered, but contacted the delivery company when she didn’t see the parcel at her front door.
“They said that they had delivered it to Winnipeg. So somehow the wrong address was given and a mistake was made, but I don’t know where it is now.”
She was also told that the delivery driver could go back and ask for the parcel if the company that sent it asked them to do so, but they would not.
RELATED: Winnipeg Santa grants little girl’s ‘blue bunny’ wish
The company that made the blanket said it would just be easier for her to re-order the item, except they could not guarantee it would arrive in time to put under the tree.
“It’s out there, and it’s ready. Just somebody’s got it and we were just hoping by chance that we could get it back,” she said.
Emms hoped that posting about the mix-up on social media and sharing with Winnipeg radio listeners would get the message to the people who mistakenly received the package, and would prompt them to reach out.
Within two days of making her appeal, the Facebook post had almost 8,000 shares, but no one ever responded saying they had received the package.
Wanting so much for the carefully thought-out gift to be enjoyed as it was intended, Emms did order a replacement.
She also had further conversations with the delivery company and the business that made the blanket trying to find out what went wrong.
“Well as it turns out it really has nothing to do with a package that was delivered to a wrong address,” Emms said in an update.
Emms said the delivery company “did some digging” and discovered that the tracking number assigned to the original blanket order duplicated the one on the other package that had been delivered to the other address. The shipping company said the error was not theirs, but the company that made the blanket also denied making the mistake.
“So I really don’t know what happened. Who made the mistake. If the first blanket was even made, and if it was, who has it.”
While what actually happened to the original order was never ironed out, Emms told Global News the story did have a happy ending.
Emms said the replacement order did arrive in time after all — they were able to watch Baba open her gift at their family gathering. The original package never did turn up.
In the end, despite all the frustration and the ‘he said, she said’ kerfuffle, what matters most is that a blanket of personal pictures arrived in time for Christmas giving, a warm hug for a beloved relative to wrap up in over the holidays and into the new year.
And, as Emms said, it just goes to show “how much people care about things like lost blankets for Babas.”
LISTEN: Sherri Emms spoke with The News on 680 CJOB in November hoping for a ‘Christmas miracle’
WATCH: There is a new Christmas tradition growing across the country. It’s called a “reverse advent calendar”
Comments