Woman expecting yoga mat, gets $400,000 in illegal drugs in mail instead

ROCK HILL, S.C. — A Rock Hill woman walked up to meet her mail carrier thinking the yoga mat she ordered from Walmart had arrived.

Instead, the postal worker handed her a heavy box, and a bag of pills, that had spilled from it. In all, there were more than 20,000 oxycodone pills, worth roughly $400,000.

The woman who received the package lives in a neighborhood off Ebinport Road. She didn't want to go on camera, but told Channel 9 there were so many pills, they were spilling from the packaging.

She immediately called police.

York County drug agents gave Channel 9 photos of the drugs, and the box they came in, shipped from Newport Beach, California.

Drug unit commander Marvin Brown said drugs are often shipped to empty homes where someone is sitting and waiting for the package to arrive.

"Vacant apartments, homes where people have gone to work for the day," Brown said.

Brown said it is likely the package was supposed to be sent to the woman's former address at a condo near Dave Lyle Boulevard. It's now vacant and someone was probably using that address as a drop point.

However, the street was misspelled on the package, the post office caught the mistake, and forwarded the package to the woman's current address.

"The dealers weren't as intelligent as they thought they were," Brown said.

Neighbor Nicole Riddle was stunned to hear that more than 20,000 oxycodone pills were delivered just doors away from her by mistake.

"It's scary to think that something like that could be right down the road and so, I’ll say, easily accessible," Riddle said.

Brown said his team will try to trace the package and also see if they can find out where it was headed, and who was supposed to receive it.

The pills have all been taken into evidence by Rock Hill police. Officers said they are likely counterfeit oxycodone pressed from powder into pills in Mexico.

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