WHITE BEAR LAKE, Minnesota (WCCO) — A woman in White Bear Lake is trying to figure out how and why Target sent more than 140 packages to her doorstep within the span of four days.
Kelly Witter says it all started a little over a year ago, when she received a box addressed to her but with an order meant for someone else.
"It was one to two boxes per month and we called and they said 'Oops, sorry for the inconvenience. We'll look into it and we'll fix this.' and it kept happening," Witter said. "Then it turned into three to four boxes per month and we called again, 'Oops, we're sorry, we'll look into this.' Do I need to send it back to you? They're like, 'Nope, it's gonna cost more to send it back. Just forget about it.'"
Witter said she had tried to reach out to Target a few more times after that as the packages persisted but was met with the same response each time.
That all changed just days from Black Friday, as while she was away from her home on Saturday, she received a phone call from a delivery service.
"I thought it was a Christmas present that I ordered. And I said, 'I'm gonna buzz you and can you leave it on the counter by the mailboxes?' And they said, "We can't do that.' Probably because there was only 133 boxes that they just put there," Witter said with a laugh.
Since then, Kelly has been working to get in touch with Target as a handful of boxes continue to arrive each day. Each package is addressed to her but inside, an invoice for the order meant for someone else, somewhere else in the country.
"Lemme tell you, everyone's coming out of the woodwork. They're like, 'Do you have some cute red ones,'" she said. "I had certain people who were like, 'Oh, you should sell them.' That's not who I am. I can't. And that's why I held on to these for this long."
Whitter dedicated her table to organizing the glasses by size, shape and prescription strength.
"Luckily, I was never charged for any of this. But I didn't want to get in trouble if all sudden I just said forget it. I'm just gonna start.. 'You get a glass, you get glasses, you get glasses,' like Oprah," Witter said.
WCCO reached out to Target to see if they could explain what happened and why.
In response, a spokesperson told said, "These products were shipped in error from a Target vendor, and we've worked with that vendor to stop the shipments immediately, and to understand how this mistake occurred in the first place. We've made arrangements for all of the mistaken packages to be picked up from Ms. Witter's home promptly, and we've offered her a gift card for inconvenience. We're also donating all of the mistakenly shipped glasses to charity. We appreciate this matter being brought to our attention and offer our sincere apologies to Ms. Witter."
While grateful for the gift card, Witter was moved to tears learning that Target was donating the eyewear.
"That's awesome because it really helps me. I'm very appreciative of that for the inconvenience...but I made sure that I kept every single invoice in here, in case they did contact me, and I was going to give them so many days before I said, I'm going to the VFW, the legions, veterans and the food shelf, I was going to go and bring these and donate because I'm thinking if you're not gonna contact me, what do I do with this," she said, adding "I can just laugh at it relieved that it's gonna be taken care of. And I did the right thing."
