DUNDALK, Md. — A Dundalk father says it’s been “the worst two weeks of his life” after a USPS package with an urn for his late son has been delayed by nearly two weeks.
Steve Prodey said his son Ryan Prodey, 29, suddenly passed away a week after Thanksgiving. The family has found it hard to cope with the loss.
“I can’t even put into words. It’s just hard to believe he’s gone,” Steve said. “This has been the worse two weeks of my life.”
But, the family of said they haven’t been able properly lay him to rest. Kathi Prodey, who is Ryan’s stepmother, said it’s because the urn she ordered online on December 4th has yet to arrive in the mail.
“He’s in a baggy,” Steve said.
Kathi added, “it’s disheartening to know a postal service we rely all on [and] we can’t even get our urn.”
She showed us the tracking information, where it said she was supposed to get it on December 7th. It’s now eleven days overdue
We’ll come pick it up,” said Kathi. “Just tell us where it’s at.”
WMAR-2 News viewers from Columbia to Baltimore have also complained to us about mail issues
On the USPS website, it blames its troubles on an unprecedented amount of mail this holiday season combined with staffing shortages due to the pandemic
“I understand that they're super busy and I don’t blame them. I just blame the confusion“
A spokesperson for USPS told WMAR-2 News the postal service is hiring seasonal workers to address the delays.
The family hopes it works because the wait has already been long enough.
“Deliver us our urn. If we had known this was going to be an issue we would have purchased a generic urn to get us by,” Kathi said.
The spokesperson for USPS is looking to find out what happened to the Prodey’s package.
But, Kathi said for the first time, they got an updated delivery date, which said the package will arrive on Thursday.
