Instead of a newspaper and some books from Amazon, a baffled student has found himself with a rather more unexpected delivery on his doorstep: a $350,000 (£206,000) US government drone.

Packaged neatly in a large box, the university student (known by his Reddit username, Seventy_Seven) received parts of a Puma drone which is used to monitor the environment and wildlife.

Seventy_Seven uploaded photos of the drone to Reddit, much to the embarrassment of the US National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) who own it.

Upon calling the delivery firm, UPS, the student was reportedly told that the package was his and that it was up to him whether he wanted to keep it or not – perhaps the questionable customer service of UPS will make for another news story.

Regardless, Seventy_Seven reached out to the NOAA, who are now making arrangements with him to recollect their missing drone.

According to Sky News, the student wrote: "They were happy I reached out to them, and now know where their missing shipment went.

"After describing what happened, he seemed pretty content about it."

The parcel had reportedly been on route to the Stellwagen Bank Marine Sanctuary in Massachusetts from MacDill Air Force Base in Florida as part of a delivery of eight boxes. With this one box going missing, the sanctuary were unable to finish building the incredibly expensive drone.

The drone has a range of around eight miles, being able to fly for about two hours at a time. The sanctuary intends to use the drone to monitor the wildlife around its site as part of a long-term mission.

This is but the latest headline in the last few months concerning the aerial technology that every tech behemoth worth its salt is attempting to get a hold of.

Last month Google became the latest company to enter the "Game of Drones" having bought drone maker Titan Aerospace for an undisclosed sum.