Photographer’s $10K Leica Goes Missing at UPS Store

A photographer has shared his heartbreak after his Leica M11-P Safari disappeared from a UPS Store earlier this month.

Dave Herring sold his Leica M11 and another camera setup just so he could purchase the M11-P Safari edition after being drawn to its color scheme. But not long after purchasing it, he had to get it replaced because the frame selector arm fell off.

Herring explains in a YouTube video that he packaged the broken camera according to Leica’s instructions and took it to his local UPS Store — where he is known to employees — paid for the postage, got a receipt, and left the store.

“Leica was supposed to receive the package by Tuesday,” Herring explains. “When I got home at the end of the week, I reached out to Leica and they let me know they never received the camera.”

Leica checked the tracking number, which told him that a “label had been created but UPS never received the box.” At this point, Herring started panicking about his $10,500 camera.

Naturally, Herring was at the UPS store at opening time the next day when he spoke to the owner who told him that it was “impossible” his package did not make it onto the UPS truck the day Herring had dropped it off.

At this point, it is important to make a vital distinction: UPS Stores are not part of UPS, instead they are private entities officially licensed to receive UPS packages. If UPS says that Herring’s package didn’t make it onto the truck, it is saying that the Store didn’t deliver it.

Herring then asked for a search of the store which proved fruitless and then asked the manager to check the cameras to see if an employee processed his package properly. Herring says the store owner was not helpful, didn’t comply with his requests, and asked him to leave the store.

“She was actually pretty rude about the whole thing,” Herring adds. “I texted my wife to say, ‘hey, something is really up here’.”

Calling the Police

Since first flagging that his camera was missing, Herring has had a series of phone calls with the manager and another employee in which their “shady” behavior has led him to believe that something happened to his Leica inside the UPS Store.

Incredibly, one of the store employees offered him $100 in compensation.

All of this has prompted him to file a police report against the store and the store’s owner. He has also contacted an attorney to explore civil action against them. Herring says the events have taken a toll on him personally.

“It has been heartbreaking,” Herring says. “At this store, something has happened to my package. Whether an employee threw it away or perhaps one of the employees stole it, perhaps it made it onto the truck and the driver lost it — I don’t know.”

Insurance

Herring did not take out insurance with UPS when he dropped off his package because he has been a member of the Professional Photographers of America (PPA) for many years.

“I have their Plus membership, and everything I own of value is itemized by serial number with PPA and I pay an annual premium based upon the value of that itemized list,” he explains.

He says the PPA have been helpful, empathetic, and professional. Thankfully, the claim has since come through which he views as a fallback option because he would rather be made whole by UPS.

Store Response

PetaPixel spoke with the store owner on the phone who insists that Herring’s package left the store and that police have reviewed the footage. She says that once the package leaves the store it is a UPS shipping issue.

“My concern is: did the package get taken or stolen or missing in the store? And the answer is no,” she says. “We have footage.”

When asked why she didn’t show the video to Herring, she says that it is “one of those things where we don’t show the footage to the customer.” But insists the footage has been shown to the police.

PetaPixel has also reached out to UPS for comment and will update the article if a statement is received.

Exchanging cameras in the mail can be a risky business. Just yesterday, PetaPixel reported on a photographer who received a box of staples instead of the $2,000 Canon lens she had paid for.

Image credits: Courtesy of Dave Herring.