Brandon woman devastated after UPS loses family heirloom
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 03/05/2025 (327 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Brandon’s Kathy Harrison says she is heartbroken and frustrated after the antique Russian watch her grandmother gave her 50 years ago was lost by United Parcel Service.
“It’s devastating — every time I think about it, I want to cry,” Harrison told the Sun.
“My grandmother’s watch is 96 years old and has mysteriously disappeared off the face of the earth, and I feel like nobody at UPS gives a darn.”
Kathy Harrison in her home in Brandon’s west end on Thursday. In late February, UPS lost an antique Russian watch that was given to Harrison by her grandmother. She is still hopeful the shipping company will find it and deliver it to her. (Tim Smith/The Brandon Sun)
The watch was shipped from a watch repair shop in Lakeville, Minn., on Feb. 25 and was expected to be delivered in Brandon three days later.
As Harrison read from the UPS tracking documents, she said the watch went from Minnesota to Kentucky, back to Minnesota, into Canada and on to Winnipeg.
“It shows it was checked twice in Winnipeg,” Harrison said. “On the 28th it said on the way, expected arrival 11:30 that morning, and then that was updated to 3:30 and again for 8:30. But they all came and went.
“And then on the fifth of March I got a notification that said an investigation has been opened for your lost package. I had to find out it was missing from a message. Really?”
Harrison said she has done her due diligence trying to track the package down, with phone calls to UPS customer service and claims departments — even confirming with Canada Border Services Agency that it came to Canada. She and her husband drove to the UPS outlet in Winnipeg, but weren’t able to get in.
“The impression I got was, ‘Oh well, too bad, we looked in the lost and found and it’s not there, so therefore we closed your case. You’re done,’” she said.
She also sent emails to customer relations and the CEO of UPS Canada, and said the replies were “polite and sympathetic, but no one could tell me why is it gone, why don’t you know where it is, and what are you doing to find it?”
The Sun also sent an email to UPS Canada CEO Stephanie Baxter, asking what the process is when locating a lost package, but did not receive a reply.
A second email sent to media relations was answered by a spokesperson who said the company is still looking for Harrison’s watch.
“Delivering to our customers is our top priority. We have initiated a secondary search to try and locate the missing package. We sincerely apologize to Ms. Harrison for this situation, as it does not reflect our standard business practices,” the spokesperson wrote.
Harrison said she has had the watch since she was about 15 or 16 years old. Her grandmother gave it to her for Christmas, when they were living on a farm near Stonewall.
Her grandparents had emigrated from Russia, and her grandfather bought the watch for his wife in 1929, right before they came to Canada.
“She would only wear it to church on Sunday and I’d have to help her put it on because the bracelet was so fiddly. So I still have those memories. And to be in this situation.” Harrison paused. “It’s Grandma’s watch,” she said, her voice breaking with emotion.
The watch was sent to a watch repair shop in Minnesota to be cleaned and have the time mechanism corrected.
A photo of Kathy Harrison’s 96-year-old Russian watch that her grandmother gave her 50 years ago. (Submitted)
“It worked, but ran five minutes fast,” Harrison said.
Lakeville was chosen because it is the hometown of former Brandon Wheat King Baron Thompson.
The Harrisons were Thompson’s billet family when he wore a Wheaties jersey for three seasons, beginning in 2017. They still keep in touch. Baron’s older brother, Tyler, who played pre-season Wheat King hockey, is a certified watchmaker at his business in Lakeville.
So earlier this year, when Baron was heading back home to the U.S., he offered to take the watch to Tyler, who would then ship it back.
“I specialize in vintage watches,” Tyler told the Sun, “but I have never seen this kind before — made in Russia. I took everything apart and did a light refinish on the case, just to brighten it up.
“It has a really pretty bracelet that is gold and woven — it’s really pretty,” he said.
“So after I took the movement completely apart, I cleaned it, oiled it upon assembly, regulated the time, tested it and shipped it.”
Harrison said she has never had the watch appraised, but to her, “it’s an heirloom. It’s priceless. And UPS’s offer, saying for your loss we could give you up to $100 — that’s just adding insult to injury. I want my watch back.”
» mmcdougall@brandonsun.com
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