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Pet store expects fish shipment, but gets corpse

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-03-11 15:22

PHILADELPHIA -- Employees of a Pennsylvania pet store expecting a shipment of tropical fish and salt water got a man's dead body instead.

Mark Arabia owns the Pets Plus store in northeast Philadelphia, where the mix-up was discovered Tuesday. He says he learned the body was that of a 65-year-old San Diego-area man who died of early onset Alzheimer's disease.

The body was supposed to go to a research laboratory in Allentown, a 70-mile drive away.

US Airways Inc. released a statement saying the air cargo problem was caused by a "verbal miscommunication between a delivery driver and the cargo representative." The Tempe, Ariz.-based airline said it's deeply sorry.

The fish were shipped in three boxes. The corpse was shipped in a wooden coffin wrapped in cardboard.

Arabia said the fish were left at the airport and probably died.