What would you do if $5,000 worth of hockey equipment, sticks in particular that are huge, arrived to your house? That’s what happened to a New Jersey resident when he received hockey sticks that were supposed to go to Washington Capitals defenseman Zdeno Chara.
Ariel Ben-Abraham who owns a clothing business in New Jersey, received a FedEx box delivered to his home on Jan. 25. When he opened the package he found a bundle of hockey sticks featuring Chara’s name and number 33.
"“This has to take the cake as the strangest thing I’ve gotten by mistake. Future Hall of Famer’s sticks, for the tallest player in NHL history? That’s crazy. Those odds don’t even make sense.”"
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This was an error on the part of FedEx. ESPN also reported that True Hockey, the manufacturers of Chara’s sticks reached out to FedEx and Ben-Abraham after pictures were surfaced on social media. FedEx told True Hockey that the sticks were at a shipping center in Memphis, which wasn’t the case at all.
Chara’s stick model, Project X, isn’t available to the public yet so the company is working with Ben-Abraham and the Caps to get the sticks to Chara. Thankfully, the Caps are on their way to New York to take on the Rangers tomorrow night so that might be the perfect opportunity for the sticks to find their rightful owner.
According to Greg Wyshynski of ESPN, the Caps said they were aware of “a mix up between the manufacturer and the shipping company,” and that the mistake was being taken care of. The photos went viral on Monday. Ben-Abraham opted to put the photos on social media so he could connect with the Caps and Chara directly.
Corey Gregory, True Hockey’s trade marketing manager for North America was shocked that the sticks ended up at the New Jersey man’s home rather than Washington’s practice facility in Arlington.
https://twitter.com/ArielCreate/status/1356345350567714817?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1356345350567714817%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nj.com%2Fdevils%2F2021%2F02%2Fcapitals-zdeno-chara-ordered-new-hockey-sticks-they-somehow-ended-up-at-a-nj-home.html
“This is not something I thought I’d be dealing with,” he said. “We aren’t sure how it happened. Somehow they ended up at this young man’s house. We got the first notice around 5 p.m. It was a little bit confusing. How is there a young man posting in New Jersey that he had sticks? Then I looked at the box and saw that it was intended for the Washington Capitals and just thought, ‘Oh my God, they’re Chara’s.”
Gregory said he’s arranging for the sticks to be picked up from Ben-Abraham to be sent to the Caps while they’re in New York.