UPS online tracking doesn't actually know where your package is

Few things are as dull as "where's my package?" customer sob stories, but this one is different. It turns up an interesting tidbit: Just because UPS's online tracking system tells you that your package is in a certain location doesn't mean it actually is.

A few Fridays ago, I expected a package of perishable items. Snow had the northeast frozen, figuratively and literally, and so I turned to UPS.com to confirm my suspicion that my package wasn't going to arrive on time. That was no one's fault. The weather can't be controlled. But at least I wanted to know if I could be away from the house if Brown wasn't going to be showing up.

To my befuddlement, UPS's tracking log had my goods breaking the laws of physics. It showed an "arrival scan" in Newark, NJ, at 6:27 a.m. But three minutes later, at 6:30 a.m., my box was listed as being in Louisville, KY. The two cities are 642 miles apart.