7 On Your Side helps family track missing Christmas tree

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- It's hard to have a Christmas tree trimming party if you don't have a tree.

A Peninsula family got stuck when they bought a fresh-cut pine tree online and somehow it got lost in the shipping.

It can't be easy to lose a tree, and this one was 7-feet tall. But shipping companies are struggling to keep up with a record number of deliveries for online purchases.

RELATED: Recession bringing Christmas tree prices up this holiday season

This year George Bouska, from South San Francisco, went online and bought a silver-tip fir from a tree farm near Yosemite.

"It's hard to find one in the city so I found this place online," said Bouska.

The farm said they'd ship it to him right after Thanksgiving weeks before his family's tree trimming party, except the tree never came.

So Bouska called UPS. "It'll be there by 4 p.m., 4 p.m. it's on the truck, don't worry about it," he says UPS told him.

RELATED: Bay Area Christmas tree farms say high prices due to shortage

However, days later, still no tree, so Bouska called UPS again.

"'We don't know, we can't find the tree' I said, 7-foot box, 30-pounds, you can't find the darned Christmas tree?"

UPS searched through thousands of boxes. Nobody could find the giant package. And George's holiday party was now just two days away.

"I said let's call 7 On Your Side," said Bouska.

ABC7 News contacted UPS and it agreed to send him a new tree by overnight shipping.

"On Thursday morning I finally receive my tree," said Bouska. "We had our party everything went great."

However, it didn't end there. "My daughter Georgia calls, 'hey dad, guess what came?'" said Bouska. Days later, this 7-foot long box arrived. You guessed it, the original tree!

RELATED: Great last minute gift ideas

"I got two trees and that one's probably dead," said Bouska.

UPS did not say how the tree got lost, or how it was found.

"Do you know anybody wants a tree by the way?" Bouska joked.

UPS said it's handling 40-million more packages than it did last year but was glad it could get the tree to this family in time for the holiday.