Taylor Swift fan mistakenly handed an entire box of signed 'Folklore' CDs: Here's what she did

GREEN BAY, Wis. – When Taylor Swift sent off surprise shipments of signed copies of her "Folklore" CD to select independent record stores across the country last week, Swifties were eager to get their hands on one.

One of those fans ended up getting her hands on an entire box of them outside Wisconsin record store The Exclusive Co. – by accident – and then did something store manager Tom Smith says “makes you have faith in human beings again.”

He learned on Friday the store in downtown Green Bay would be getting 30 of the coveted CDs on Saturday morning. What Smith didn’t know was that UPS would deliver them at 9:45 a.m., 15 minutes before the store was open and an employee was available to sign for the package.

When Smith arrived at 9:59 a.m. to open the doors and turn on the lights, there were two Swift fans sitting on the ground out in front of the shop. The delivery driver had asked one of them to sign for the unmarked box and drove off.

That delivery driver didn’t know that he had left the autographed CDs with Brandy Baenen, a huge Swift fan whose doormat at home reads "You Better Like Taylor Swift." But as it turned out, the precious cargo couldn’t have landed in better hands.

Baenen could’ve easily walked away with the delivery before Smith arrived 15 minutes later to open the store and he never would've known, but she didn’t. She waited and turned over the box, Smith said, even though she had a pretty good idea of what was inside.

“Out of curiosity, do you know what’s in the box?” Baenan asked. When Smith told her it was the autographed “Folklore” CDs, she said, “I thought it was!”

Smith said the CDs could have been sold on eBay and estimated Baenan could have gotten $9,000 for that box.

“It totally shows the character of Taylor Swift fans. Taylor Swift, I think, does such cool things, and I think they’re taking their cue from her," Smith said.

Now Beanan is earning national praise as the good samaritan Swiftie, sparking all kinds of social media love from fellow Swifties for the mystery fan who did the right thing. Her story has been covered by the “Today” show and other media outlets.

“Crazy, absolutely crazy,” Baenen said on Monday. “I was like, ‘What?!’”

If this is her 15 minutes of fame, the 26-year-old Baenen, who lives in Green Bay, said she's overjoyed that it's for being a Swift fan and says she never thought to do anything with it but protect the box until it could get to its destination, not even peek inside.

“Oh no, definitely not,” she said. “Taylor Swift would not want me or anyone else to do anything with those CDs other than a) get to where they were going and b) be purchased, and not purchased specifically for her. The reason she sent them out was to keep smaller businesses in business.

“A hundred thousand times percent, I literally would not have left with those CDs, because Taylor Swift wanted them there, and I would never do anything to disappoint Taylor Swift.”

Baenen has been a fan since middle school when she first heard Swift sing “Teardrops on My Guitar.” She considers seeing the Reputation Stadium Tour on June 1, 2018, at Soldier Field in Chicago, as “by far the best day of my life.” A wall in her living room is devoted to Taylor Swift art.

She remembers watching a short DVD about Swift’s life that accompanied her self-titled debut album in 2006.

“I fell in love with her as a person, and I just feel like I’ve been completely able to grow with her," Baenan said. “She’s so open and honest in all of her writing. It’s been so easy to relate to her. I don’t think you could ask for a better role model for your kids. She’s an angel. She’s literally an angel.”

Swift, who released “Folklore,” her eighth studio album, on July 24 without any advance promotion, sent signed copies out to indie record shops on Thursday as a show of support for small business. Smith says he was originally told only the store's locations in Greenfield and Milwaukee would be getting shipments.

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All 30 copies in Green Bay were snatched up in less than five hours.

“I told one person, ‘You have this nice Taylor Swift fan to thank for this. The fact that she even said, ‘Taylor Swift would not want me to walk away with this,' that was the part that really got me,” Smith says.

It was a feel-good moment during times when they can sometimes feel in short supply.

“It’s encouraging," Smith says. "People, just keep doing the right thing. You’ll change the world eventually. Just keep at it.”

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This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Taylor Swift 'Folklore': Fan gets box of signed CDs, then returns them