5 On Your Side

5 On Your Side helps track down $7,300 lost iPad that helps teen communicate with family

A Raleigh man needed answers after a package entrusted to a UPS store, never arrived at its destination. This lost package created real concern because inside was a special device that a teenager relies on to communicate.
Posted 2021-03-22T19:31:55+00:00 - Updated 2021-03-22T22:40:16+00:00
5 On Your Side helps track down a special needs family's missing tech

A Raleigh man needed answers after a package entrusted to a UPS store never arrived at its destination. This lost package created real concern because inside was a special device that a teenager relies on to communicate.

It was a big day last summer when Shane Glover got his custom iPad. It’s the only way he can communicate with his family.

“He has never talked. He never really makes any noises beside the ‘ah’ sound,” explained his father Jason Glover.

Shane Glover has struggled since birth. Jason Glover said they tried many tools before they found the Talk to Me technology, which cost $7,300.

When it started glitching last month, Jason Glover took the iPad to the UPS store on Falls of Neuse Road, in Raleigh, to send it in for repair. Instead, the repair company received a lock box labeled with Glover’s tracking number.

“I think that the employee just put the wrong label on the wrong box,” said Jason Glover. “To them, it was probably just another lost package. To me, it was my kid’s way of communicating and it’s our way of communicating with him.

Getting no answers from UPS, Glover emailed 5 On Your Side to help speed the search.

“They don’t seem to be quite so concerned,” Jason Glover wrote to 5 On Your side.

5 On Your Side contacted UPS on Feb. 26.

With the help of some detective work by Jason Glover, a UPS spokeswoman confirmed labels were accidentally swapped and Shane Glover’s iPad was sent to Amazon and the lockbox went to the repair company.

“[The iPad] is customized for him. We’ve built all those buttons, so even if I did get a new one, it’s going to take a long time for us to reset like the way it was working for him. He knows where each button is now. He’s not reading the words, he’s recognized the picture that’s on each button versus the word.”

One month after being mailed, UPS told 5 On Your Side that Amazon found the iPad, and sent it to its original destination.

Jason Glover said he’s very close to claiming victory, but needs the iPad back in his son’s hand before he does.

“We’re already kind of committed to not having the [iPad] for a couple of weeks, and that means him not telling us when his head hurts or when he is hungry or when he has to go to the bathroom, or any of things like that, that he used the device to tell us,” said Jason Glover.

He added that he got word from the repair company that they received the device.

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