common // Declassified FillerTench & Daughters Haulage has opened claim file TD-2209 after a Friday delivery to Gullet Row ended with a smile.
MUDGATE JUNCTION — A driver for Tench & Daughters Haulage played a song reported this week to be scientifically designed to soothe babies, and to have 470 million streams, on a continuous loop for four hours on Friday, then delivered a three-door wardrobe to the wrong house, the company confirmed Saturday.
The wardrobe was addressed to 41 Gullet Row. It was left at 14 Gullet Row, where it remains.
The driver, Dunstan Pellick, 52, had been told by the company's dispatch office to collect the wardrobe at 08:10 and deliver it by noon. He arrived at 12:40. The track runs two minutes and thirty seconds, which puts the count at 96 plays, according to the cab's stereo log.
"He said the van felt very safe," said Marrow Odlin, dispatch supervisor at Tench & Daughters. "I asked him to read the docket out loud. He read the docket in the tune."
Pellick reversed the van to the kerb at 14 Gullet Row, carried the wardrobe up the path with the help of a resident, and signed the delivery sheet himself. The resident, who is not the consignee, was reported to be happy with it.
"He was so calm that I didn't like to say anything," said Hesper Quillfoot, 71, of 14 Gullet Row. "I have been meaning to get a wardrobe since March."
The actual consignee, Bram Ketterick, 38, of 41 Gullet Row, waited in his hallway from 11:15 until 15:50. He said he first noticed the delivery on a neighbour's landing.
"I could see it from my window," Ketterick said. "It had the right label on it. It was the correct wardrobe in the incorrect house."
Tench & Daughters has sent Pellick a recorded letter instructing him to listen to nothing during working hours, including the radio. Pellick has returned the letter, signed, with a note that he is "fine".
Tobias Wrenmarsh, loss adjuster at Gullet & Marl Mutual, said the policy covers damage, theft and delay, but has no category for a wardrobe that is in good condition and delivered cheerfully to the wrong address. He has filed it under delay.
The song was published in 2016 by a baby-food brand as part of a study in which infants were played candidate tracks. CNN reported Saturday that its streams now stand at 470 million.
Removal of the wardrobe from 14 Gullet Row is scheduled for Monday at 09:00. Quillfoot has asked whether the crew could come at 11:00, as she has people coming at 10:30 and would like them to see it.
