Toronto mother pleads for help after UPS misplaces package with family heirlooms inside

A Toronto woman is hoping the kindness of strangers will help her find a misplaced package from UPS containing two family albums with photos of her deceased parents and her childhood spent in South Africa.

“I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t eat, I was just barely there, barely surviving wondering where it could be and what could have happened?” explains Korir-Emo Maphosa-Ngwenya in an interview with Global News.

“It’s almost like losing my parents again, it almost feels that way.”

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The 34-year-old’s sister-in-law recently travelled from the United Kingdom to South Africa on holiday and retrieved the priceless albums while visiting family. One of the albums is zebra print, the other a colourful print. Upon return to the U.K., the relative shipped the photos by UPS expedited parcel to Toronto.

Maphosa-Ngwenya says the parcel began its journey on April 6, cleared customs and was received at a warehouse in the GTA between April 11 and April 13, which is where the company lost track of it.

“I wished we had insured it because maybe then they would’ve taken it more seriously,” adds Maphosa-Ngwenya who says she reported the lost package and filed a claim with the company. She says UPS claims they are “doing the best they can” when it comes to tracking down the parcel.

“After a while, it’s just like maybe the best you’re trying to do is not good enough for this situation,” she says.

Global News reached out to UPS about the lost family heirlooms and was told by a company spokesperson via email that they’re “actively looking into this matter.

“We regret the stress and inconvenience this issue has caused and we are actively investigating this situation and are working to resolve the issue for our customer,” UPS wrote.

Mapphosa-Ngwenya is a new mom who was looking forward to one day sharing her family history through photographs with her 5-month-old son Mica.

“My parents lived through apartheid in South Africa, I remember hearing stories of them telling me about voting for the first time in 1994, standing in long queues just to cast their vote for Nelson Mandela. I grew up just hearing stories about the 1976 June massacre things that happened in South Africa, they lived that, that was their story,” explains Maphosa-Ngwenya.

Her father passed away in 1997 and her mother in 2011, both in South Africa. She says she and her sister never considered digitalizing photos, it was only now with a child of her own, that thought crossed her mind.

One of the albums is zebra print, the other a colourful print.

Anyone who believes they may have received the parcel by mistake can contact the Global News tipline.