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California family says Amazon-bought urn arrived with someone else’s ashes
ktla ^

Posted on 05/18/2026 7:15:12 PM PDT by BenLurkin

A Southern California family rattled after discovering what appears to be the ashes of a stranger in an urn they ordered through Amazon say they are trying to do the right thing, but that the companies involved are not making it easy.

Mark Culberston said the urn was one of a few his family purchased after the death of his grandfather early last year. After enduring months of grief at the loss of her husband, Culbertson’s grandmother was finally ready to place her late husband’s ashes within urns for family members.

Culbertson explained to KTLA’s Shelby Nelson that all of the urns were empty except for one of them.

“This one has an ashy substance in it and we did a little more research. They look like ashes,” he said.

Culbertson contacted Amazon right after the family made the discovery but said the response he got from the giant online retailer was frustrating, saying their response to the matter was super casual.

“It’s like I’m talking to them, like, ‘Hey, I got shoes. They looked like they were scuffed. I need to return these,’” he said.

(Excerpt) Read more at ktla.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS: amazon; ashes; california; urn

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To: BenLurkin

During Covid and scarcity on shelves, I thought about ordering toilet paper on Amazon. Then didn’t do it.

Funny thing: Even for toilet paper they had active preference boxes for people to check “NEW” or “USED.”

Maybe this case involved a computer mixup in the order. But would they really accept a return for refund like that?


41 posted on 05/18/2026 11:05:52 PM PDT by frank ballenger (There's a battle outside and it's raging. It'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls. )
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

I was one od AMZ’s first customers when Bezoz sold only books. AMZ has expanded and now get daily deliveries for Daisy Cat and me. Delivery guys laugh that they’ll able to work forever. .


42 posted on 05/18/2026 11:14:11 PM PDT by Veto! ((Trump is Superman))
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To: rlmorel

Yikes!


43 posted on 05/18/2026 11:30:38 PM PDT by Texas Eagle (If it wasn't for double-standards, Liberals would have no standards at all. )
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To: chajin

What’s a Grecian urn? -about 10 bucks an hour!


44 posted on 05/19/2026 12:20:22 AM PDT by 2nd Amendment
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To: BenLurkin

Free gift with purchase!


45 posted on 05/19/2026 1:51:03 AM PDT by Mr. Blond
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To: chajin
They make money the old-fashioned way: they urn it.

There was an old man named Benny. He had a long beard, all the way down to his belly button. One day, he decided he was going to shave off his beard, though his friend told him not to, or he would turn into a Grecian urn. He didn’t listen. He shaved off his beard, and sure enough, he turned into a Grecian urn. The moral of the story is; a Benny shaved, is a Benny urned.

46 posted on 05/19/2026 3:33:55 AM PDT by Mark17 (Retired USAF air traffic controller. 🎤 Father of USAF pilot. ✈️ Aviation is in our DNA)
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To: BenLurkin

Well, I bought a picture frame that had a photo of a stranger in it, so…


47 posted on 05/19/2026 4:25:21 AM PDT by william clark (A man who is unwilling to be proven wrong has little regard for truth.)
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To: HYPOCRACY

It’s Flat Stanley


48 posted on 05/19/2026 4:45:14 AM PDT by redshawk ( I want my red balloon. https://youtu.be/VexKSRKoWQY)
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Comment #49 Removed by Moderator

To: redshawk

Ha!


50 posted on 05/19/2026 5:03:47 AM PDT by HYPOCRACY (There is no gravity. The earth just sucks. )
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To: HYPOCRACY

Now I am gonna tell the kids to do that with me lol


51 posted on 05/19/2026 5:43:57 AM PDT by cableguymn (Can't cancel all of us)
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To: montag813

No, how do you think the bodies will be ‘when the seas give up their dead’?


52 posted on 05/19/2026 6:02:24 AM PDT by xone ( )
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To: BenLurkin

This story took an urn for the worse.


53 posted on 05/19/2026 6:04:10 AM PDT by Hyman Roth
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To: BenLurkin

I would treat the one with ashes already in it like a dirty ash tray - wash it out if I wanted to save it or, throw it out if I didn’t.

My wife wants whoever is left to scatter her/our ashes on the beach where we were married...we both believe that once one dies, the body left is just an empty husk and the soul has risen (hopefully)...anything else done, whether it be burial or scattering of ashes is just symbolism.


54 posted on 05/19/2026 6:06:28 AM PDT by trebb (So many fools - so little time...)
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To: montag813

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In the General/Chat forum, on a thread titled California family says Amazon-bought urn arrived with someone else’s ashes, montag813 wrote:
Please bury your dead. They need to be intact to be ready for that great day to come.
***
You think you’ll be “intact”?


55 posted on 05/19/2026 6:13:29 AM PDT by NCLaw441
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To: BenLurkin

Dump them in the garden, wash the stupid thing, continue like it never happened.


56 posted on 05/19/2026 6:17:24 AM PDT by GingisK
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To: rlmorel

Those visions are so useful. I hope you keep having them. I can’t remember any myself, so I just had to deal with the consequences.


57 posted on 05/19/2026 7:16:30 AM PDT by Retain Mike ( Sat Cong)
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To: Organic Panic

That is a great scene!

LOL, forgot the Guest of Honor!


58 posted on 05/19/2026 7:46:58 AM PDT by rlmorel (Factio Communistica Sinensis Delenda Est)
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To: lee martell; ProtectOurFreedom
Glad you liked it-I use Free Republic as a vehicle to write personal anecdotes about my life that I suspect I am beginning to forget as I grow older! I have saved them all in a folder on my computer.

LOL, that hard drive will likely simply be reformatted when I am gone to store images of someone's cats...heck, mine are on there somewhere!


59 posted on 05/19/2026 7:50:57 AM PDT by rlmorel (Factio Communistica Sinensis Delenda Est)
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To: rlmorel

Nice kitties!

“I have saved them all in a folder on my computer. LOL, that hard drive will likely simply be reformatted when I am gone”

You raise a good point. My grandfather was a WW I POW — on the German side! He wrote 20 pages of memoirs late in his life about his experience being a Russian POW and how he escaped. Pretty amazing stuff. Most of our lives are rather humdrum compared to that, but we still have great stories our kids like hearing. I’m always telling my kids various stories they have not heard before.

You should think about taking the time to gather up all your stories and stitch them together into your own memoir. Your family would really appreciate that. Maybe even the cats if you read it to them!

You’re a good writer and could make a funny and engaging life story, I’m sure.


60 posted on 05/19/2026 8:01:38 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom ( )
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