Hacker News Reader

Comment by jedberg | Hacker News Reader

Anyone who has shipped with FedEx knows how somehow everything you send goes through Atlanta. I'll bet this was just one of those "logistical efficiency" gone wrong kind of things.

Or US intelligence requested the documents be diverted. Either is about equally likely I'd say.

View on HN

I tend to agree with the first half... Maybe I'm a bit tin-foil, but I feel like if intelligence was involved they'd just intercept it en route, and wouldn't bother sending it all the way back to the US, especially in a trackable way for that matter...

The second half was more of a joke. I agree with you, they would probably hide it, unless FedEx was dumb enough to mess up and show it when they shouldn't.

Honestly, FedEx has a tracking system... I wouldn't be surprised if they were unable to avoid somehow altering the destination information of the package unless the NSA stole the items off the back of their delivery truck - it may also be FedEx throwing up a canary about government shadiness but...

The truth is probably that FedEx is just terrible at their job and goofed it.

Did you mean Memphis? Atlanta would love to take some or all that traffic away from Memphis since the Atlanta airport is woefully under utilized after midnight.

Maybe? I just remember it was somewhere on the other side of the country where my package from SF to LA had no business being.

Yes, it's Memphis[1].

[1] https://youtube.com/watch?v=y3qfeoqErtY&t=1m51s

The Memphis package exchange is something to behold. It's the hub in a massive hub and spoke model.

I had a package go from Fremont to SF via Memphis.

It’s humans, whether they’re going to heaven or hell, that have a connection in Atlanta.

(ATL is a hub for Delta, and a few other airlines run a ton of flights out of there too)

i find it hard to believe any intelligence service would a.) literally reroute the package, instead of having some field agents in the origin country deal with it, b.) not suppress revealing the actual route on the fedex tracking website.

Agreed, it was more of a joke.

If US intelligence wanted it, it would simply get put on hold at some foreign facility while agents go through it there (or use that transparent paper spray). Nothing different would be noticed.

What is this transparent paper spray?

I hope it sprays transparent paper.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERSJTY0PrEI

Everything domestic. It doesn't make sense to do that internationally, though.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com