Priceless Fossils Were Thrown In A Dump After This Professor Says His College Failed To Pay Their UPS Bills
A professor at William Paterson University in New Jersey is suing the school for neglecting to pay their UPS bills. Their irresponsibility caused the professor’s life work to be dumped in a landfill.
Martin Becker, a paleontologist and professor of environmental science, spent more than 18 years collecting rare Devonian Age marine invertebrate fossils from New Jersey’s High Mountain area.
Last summer, he packed up 200 of these fossils—80 percent of his collection—in 19 boxes from the campus to a colleague in Florida for a project.
According to the lawsuit, he brought the boxes to William Paterson University’s mailroom, but the university never paid their shipping bills.
As a result, UPS threw the fossils in a dump in Tennessee. Becker is now suing the university for emotional distress and “destruction of his life’s work.”
The suit claims that Becker’s marine fossil collection was the most unique in northern New Jersey. They were also invaluable to his teaching and career.
The suit stated that on June 18, 2024, Becker had handed the boxes to mailroom supervisor Raymond Boone, who told Becker that he would keep him updated on tracking and insurance information. UPS picked up the packages later that same day. Boone was named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
But after several weeks, Becker’s colleague never received the fossils. Two months later, they still hadn’t been delivered. Becker reached out to Boone, who informed him that he was “working on the issue” with UPS.
On August 16, Becker received a tracking number for the shipment. It showed that the packages were in Parsippany, New Jersey.
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By the end of the month, there were still no updates on the shipment. Becker was given the runaround by Boone again.
On September 20, Boone told Becker that the packages may be at the UPS’ fraud department. So, Becker followed up with UPS 10 days later.
He learned that the packages had indeed been confiscated by the fraud department because the university had neglected to pay multiple invoices.
He discovered that the university’s UPS account was canceled back in April 2024, but they failed to do anything about it. The lawsuit says that the packages were dumped in a landfill somewhere in or around Nashville, Tennessee.
Boone had been aware of the canceled UPS account since at least July because of notices from UPS and other confiscated packages.
The university was also allegedly aware that Boone was unfit for the position of mailroom supervisor but allowed him to continue working there anyway.
Becker is seeking damages for his lost collection, as well as medical expenses for the emotional distress the whole ordeal has caused him. A spokesperson for William Paterson said the university was not aware of the lawsuit.
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