Corpse delivered to pet store

NORTHEAST PHILADELPHIA - March 10, 2009 - (WPVI) -- Call it an unexpected delivery to a pet store.

Mark Arabia was expecting a thousand dollar shipment of 3 boxes of salt water and tropical fish for his Pets Plus store in Northeast Philadelphia.

Instead, he was given a coffin carrying the remains of a person instead.

"At first when I looked at it, I said 'Fish never come this way," Arabia said.

Arabia says, his shipment of fish was supposed to be picked up last night, but USAirways cargo did not release the fish to a Pets Plus manager because he didn't have ID.

Thus a substitute driver made the pick up.

Once at the store, the owner saw the paperwork and initially thought it was a mistake.

But, he knew there was a mixup when he looked in the car to see a coffin had been delivered.

The coffin holds the remains of 65-year-old Jon Kenoyer of the San Diego area, who died of early onset Alzheimer's.

"I think it's horrible. You can mess up, give us wrong stuff, wrong boxes. I guess this is how treat bodies at the airport which is a shame. If it was my family member I'd really be broken up," Arabia said.

His family told Action News by phone that the family shipped his body to LifeQuest Anatomical in Allentown where samples would be taken from Kenoyer's remains for Alzheimer's research.

After tissue samples are taken, Kenoyer's remains are supposed to be cremated and his ashes will be flown back to his family to be scattered in the ocean this Friday during a memorial service.

Late Tuesday, USAirways released a statement about the incident:

"Regrettably, there was an unfortunate mix up today at the US Airways Cargo facility near Philadelphia International Airport. The mix up occurred due to a verbal miscommunication between a delivery driver and the cargo representative. We are working to rectify the situation and are deeply sorry for the inconvenience this has caused."

This afternoon, a car bearing an ariline logo of some sort picked up the coffin, presumably to send it on it's way.

By the way, the fish in Arabia's thousand dollar order likely used their oxygen supply and have died by now.

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