UPS Lost $850K Inheritance. Family Says Bank Isn't Helping

Last February, Ontario's Louis Paul Hebert went to the UPS Store to pick up a TD Canada Trust bank draft for nearly $850,000—his portion of an inheritance from his father. But the bank draft never showed, and now his family is mired in what CBC News calls a "three-way David vs. Goliaths battle," with UPS having no clue what happened to the draft it was hired to ship, and TD Canada Trust placing what the family says are unfair demands to issue a new one. "Never in my wildest imagination did I think something like this would happen," says Lorette Taylor, Hebert's sister, who was responsible for dealing with their dad's will and doling out the inheritances to 61-year-old Hebert and their sister. Taylor says TD Canada Trust suggested putting the funds in bank draft form, assuring her and her husband, John, that if the bank draft were lost or stolen, it wouldn't be a big deal to replace it.

"I was told there were procedures to deal with that," John says. Those procedures, however, are onerous ones, say the Taylors, including making Lorette liable if the missing draft is ever cashed, as well as either making her put a lien on her home for at least three years or buy a guaranteed investment certificate for that period for the inheritance amount: $846,648.46. "In situations where a bank draft is lost or stolen, before we can agree to a replacement or reimbursement we need appropriate security to be in place," a bank rep tells the CBC, adding bank drafts don't expire and are like cash. Meanwhile, Hebert has maxed out his credit cards. He calls this "a massive screw-up where the big guys look after themselves." "I would have been retired," he adds. As for UPS, they refunded the $32 shipping charge and apologized for losing the bank draft, noting, "We are unfortunately not perfect." (More UPS stories.)