Maryland Woman Learns Insurance Purchased for Packages Stopped at the U.S. Border

When packages a Maryland woman sent to Ireland never arrived, she learned the insurance she purchased for them stopped at the border.

Grace O’Keefe recently traveled to Dublin to reconnect with her roots.

“I hadn't been back in 26 years,” she said.

To thank her family there, she sent them pictures of her trip.

“I got thinking, what a great idea to take pictures and then send them back to them in frames,” she said.

She shipped several packages through the U.S. Postal Service, some by express mail and others by first class due to weight she said. And she had them insured.

Most of the packages made it to Ireland, but two didn’t, she said.

Tracking showed they were stuck in Jamaica, New York. So she went to her local post office and spoke with a supervisor.

“I said, ‘What good is the tracking number? Why is it stuck in Jamaica still? Somebody has to know something,’” O’Keefe said. “And he said, 'Well, I don't have anybody I can contact. That's all I can tell you.’”

Her reaction was to tell him she would contact NBC4 Responds.

“And he looked at me and he said, 'Well, that sounds like a good idea,’" she said.

The U.S. Postal Service told NBC4 Responds once a package crosses the border, control of it switches to a foreign post office.

Soon after O’Keefe reached out to NBC4 Responds, the missing packages reached their destinations.

“But I just felt like I got a flip answer and that everything that I had been promised in writing, not one thing was followed through on, and that just really rips me, so I came looking for Susan Hogan,” she said.