From the archives: This story was last updated in November 2019.
A Facebook post by a Texas woman is going viral for all the belly laughs it has given netizens around the world.Ebony Freeman shared a photo of a large blue cylindrical package delivered by a UPS driver to her home in October 2019. The package contained AstroTurf, but what made the photo so noteworthy was the manner in which the driver had left the item.
The driver “hid” the big blue cylinder under Ebony’s doormat, which helpfully had the words on it: “Please hide packages from husband” in neat printed lettering.
The Photo Goes Viral
“Oh my god look!” Ebony posted on Facebook, beside a picture of the UPS driver’s hilarious handiwork outside her home in Mineola, Texas. “The UPS guy actually hid it under the rug!”Ebony’s Oct. 8, 2019, post has garnered 49,000 shares to date and 10,000 comments from users in appreciation of the hilarious incident.
“That’s totally inconspicuous,” joked one Facebook user.
“This is something I'd do,” added another, while hundreds of people joined Ebony in celebrating the comic genius of both the mat and the UPS driver’s funny gesture.
An Amusing Habit
“I am shocked, like it’s just a rug, you know?” Ebony told Insider. “I think it just gained attention because it’s a cute ordeal and we have so much negativity on the news and social media. It’s a breath of fresh air just seeing something fun like this.”According to Amanda, the Etsy seller is “super stoked” that her product is being shown off online. As for Ebony’s husband, it seems he is able to laugh at his wife’s shopping habit.
“I have a package a day coming from Amazon,” Ebony admitted, “but he thinks it’s funny.”
As for what exactly she’s ordering, Freeman admitted that she is usually buying things for her dogs, as well as “decor items, food items [she] can’t find in stores, shoes, accessories ... pretty much everything.”
Ahead of the holiday season, Ebony has plans to upgrade her comic doormat to a “singing” mat. The industrious shopper has a design on order that sings “Here Comes Amazon” to the tune of the classic holiday ditty “Here Comes Santa Claus.”
We wonder what the UPS driver will make of that.
UPS Dogs
It’s not the first time that UPS delivery personnel have taken the internet by storm with their antics. Back in 2013, UPS driver Sean McCarren, of West Virginia, started a Facebook page called UPS Dogs as a forum for drivers and the sweet dogs they meet during their shifts.“I know people who buy a couple of boxes [of dog treats] a week,” he said. “As soon as you deliver to a stop, especially in rural areas, the dogs start popping up in your truck.
“They become a part of your family, kinda. They’re expecting you. The worst is when you run out of treats. Next time, they get a double treat!”
McCarren’s social media page celebrates the full spectrum of experiences that UPS drivers have with the dogs on their routes. It can be tremendously sad, McCarren said, when a dog passes away. “Last year I lost a dog, Belle,” he explained. “She would come out and greet me and expect a treat, and then she died suddenly last year.
“You see these dogs every day,” he added. “It’s tough on the families, too.”
But above and beyond the losses, UPS Dogs has provided a forum for dog lovers everywhere to celebrate these joyful creatures and the drivers whose working days they enrich.
Today, in addition to dogs, the viral page features deer, cats, horses, chickens, goats, and all manner of friendly furries that UPS personnel have met along the way.
