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Urban Legends Reference Pages: Rumors of War (Uniform Behavior)

Uniform Behavior

Claim: A large number of UPS uniforms are " missing " and

presumed to have been acquired by terrorists.

Status: False.

Examples: [Collected on the Internet, 2003]

A large number of UPS uniforms have gone missing.

Please inform all properties to check ID's and be

alert to " replacement " delivery personnel.

Please forward accordingly

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SECURITY ALERT: $32,000 worth of UPS uniforms have

been purchased over the last 30 days by person(s) unknown. Law enforcement is

working on the case however no suspect(s) have been indentified. Subjects may

try to gain access by wearing one of these uniforms. If anyone has suspicions

about a UPS delivery (i.e., no truck but driver, no UPS identification, etc.,

contact UPS to verify employment).

If you see or have seen a UPS delivery from an unknown

driver please ask for proper ID and be alert to any suspicious packages or

deliveries. Please notify building security or appropriate law enforcement.

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There has been a huge purchase, $32,000.00 worth, of

United Parcel Service (UPS) uniforms on eBay over the last (30) thirty days.

This could represent a serious threat as bogus drivers can drop off anything to

anyone with deadly consequences.

If you have any questions when a UPS driver appears at

your door, they should be able to furnish valid I.D. Additionally, if someone in

a UPS uniform comes to make a drop off or pick up, make absolutely sure they are

driving a UPS truck. UPS does not make deliveries or pick ups in anything except

company vehicles. If you have a problem, immediately call local law enforcement.

On 3/31/03 an alert was issued to UPS drivers. Drivers

were asked to keep track of their uniforms and to dispose of same according to

UPS guidelines.

Some of you may have already heard the above

information, but I will keep sending out new alerts as I get them.

Origins: The potential for further terrorist attacks in the

USA looms great in the minds of many, with the perception of impending danger at

times working to color how we see and react to less sinister occurrences.

In February 2003 a number of security alerts regarding UPS

uniforms were distributed by both private and law enforcement sources. They

seemed to come from every direction, with many of them stating their information

originated with a warning issued by United Parcel Service (UPS) regarding

missing delivery personnel uniforms. Those who encountered these warnings

immediately linked them to the threat of terrorism, at once grasping the

potential for harm if al Qaeda members took to impersonating office couriers.

The warning about missing uniforms echoes another terrorist-related rumor, one

that asserted in the days immediately following the September 11 attacks thirty

Ryder, Verizon, and U-Haul trucks had gone missing, presumably swiped by

terrorists intent upon using them as camouflage for further assaults.

The rumor that a large number of uniforms were " missing "

(implying they had been stolen or hijacked and were now in the hands of persons

unknown for use in nefarious schemes, presumably terrorism-related activity)

seems to have sprung from speculation at the beginning of 2003 about the

intentions of a small cadre of buyers who bid what seemed like outrageously high

sums for UPS uniforms on the on-line auction site eBay. (Despite eBay's later

claims to the contrary, UPS uniforms were being offered and sold on their site

as late as January 2003.) Because our new terrorist-aware mode of thinking

affects how we perceive events, many people skipped over other potentially less

terrifying explanations (e.g., uniform collectors adding to their stock, former

UPS employees acquiring old uniforms out of nostalgia, run-of-the-mill thieves

needing cover for their endeavors, uniform fetishists looking to spice up their

sex lives with some 'home delivery') and went straight to the assumption that

UPS uniforms were being snapped up by terrorists. That several different people

(or at least someone with several different eBay IDs) were simultaneously

bidding high prices for UPS uniforms did work against the more mundane

explanations, but terrorists' spending thousands of dollars on a public auction

site to buy up easily-duplicated brown uniforms wasn't much more plausible.

(Generally only someone with a strong emotional attachment to an inherently

non-valuable common object will insist upon owning an original and be willing

pay an exorbitant fee to acquire it; others are content with buying or making

replicas.)

Many explanations for this rumor have been bruited about in

recent weeks. Some of the people who sold UPS uniforms (often acquired by

purchasing them through thrift shops) on eBay before the auction site clamped

down on the practice early in 2003 said they were contacted by " cyber crime "

units who only wanted to verify that the uniforms were not stolen and who told

them that UPS was buying up their uniforms to keep them off the street. Other

people claim that a private firm hired by UPS has been buying up the uniforms on

their behalf, or even that due to national security concerns, the FBI has

arranged to be the top bidder for any UPS uniforms sold on-line. If there's

anything to these stories, nobody connected with them has been forthcoming about

it yet. The reponse we finally received from UPS via e-mail disclaimed any

notion of " missing " uniforms but reinforced the notion that UPS and law

enforcement agencies are concerned about recent sales of used UPS uniforms:

A number of security alerts regarding UPS uniforms recently

have been distributed by both private and law enforcement sources. There are two

primary versions of these alerts:

1) Misleading reports of a missing shipment of UPS uniforms.

2) Alerts regarding a large number of uniforms being

purchased by an individual.

Reports that a shipment of UPS uniforms is missing are

simply not true. There is no missing shipment of uniforms.

As for alerts regarding uniforms being purchased by an

individual, this matter has been investigated by law enforcement with UPS'

involvement and cooperation and resolved to the satisfaction of all parties.

UPS does not condone the sale or unauthorized use of its

uniforms. UPS investigates reports of such unauthorized use but due to security

concerns, we are not at the liberty to discuss such matters in any further

detail.

As the Washington Post reported, law enforcement agencies,

eBay, and UPS were all eager to deny any claims of missing or stolen uniforms:

The FBI has debunked several similar UPS stories since the

Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

UPS spokeswoman Rosenberg in Atlanta says the e-mail

has been " thoroughly investigated " by the FBI and local law enforcement. " It is

the urban legend of missing uniforms, " she says.

EBay spokesman Pursglove also says the UPS story

" comes up empty. "

Our best guess is that after they were alerted to online sales

of their discarded uniforms, UPS realized the potential public relations

disaster that would follow any unfortunate incident involving the use of a UPS

uniform (terrorist-related or not) and decided to work behind the scenes to

convince on-line auction sites to drop such listings, perhaps even quietly

spending money themselves to buy up some of the available uniforms. After all,

you can't remain one of the world's top package delivery services if people are

afraid to open the door for your deliverymen.

Additional information:

Person in Brown Works for UPS

(Louisville Courier-Journal)

UPS Rumors Are Uniformly Wrong

(The Washington Post)

Last updated: 8 April 2003

The URL for this page is http://www.snopes.com/rumors/ups.asp

Urban Legends Reference Pages © 1995-2003

by Barbara and P. Mikkelson

This material may not be reproduced without permission

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Sources:

Oldenburg, Don. " UPS Rumors Are Uniformly Wrong. "

The Washington Post. 8 April 2003 (p. C10).

The [Louisville] Courier-Journal. " Person in Brown Works for

UPS. "

2 March 2003.

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