Brooklyn indie rocker receives stranger’s cremated remains in the mail

Special delivery from the US ghost office.

A Brooklyn-based indie-rocker got a package of cremated human remains belonging to a stranger in the mail — and was stunned when the funeral home that sent them initially told him it wasn’t their problem.

Hamilton Leithauser, 44,  a solo performer and frontman of the popular indie-punk band The Walkmen, was gobsmacked Tuesday when he opened the cardboard container and found the ashes inside another plain cardboard box.

“It’s just sort of shocking. I’m like, ‘What am I supposed to do with these?” he told The Post. “This was a person. You have to show a little respect.”

The remains were marked October 17, 2017, and had been shipped to the “current resident” of his studio apartment in East Williamsburg by John’s Funeral Home in Brownsville.

But when he tried calling the funeral home to straighten things out, the owner was extremely unhelpful, Leithauser said. 

“He said something like, ‘It’s your problem now, and he actually hung up on me,” he said.  “He was a total a—hole”

But before he hung up, the alleged ash-hole let it slip that, after no one came to claim the remains, he tried to ship them to a man named Robbie — or possibly Ronnie — who may have lived at the same address around 2017.

Leithauser, who lost his mom last year, said he empathizes with the dead man — whose first name is Walter — and anyone who may have loved him.

“Not to get overly sentimental but my mother died last year and we have her ashes,” he said. “Now I feel attached to old Walt. Nobody came to claim the dude,” he said.

He then said he wants to track down a possible relative.

“I’d love to meet Robbie and give him the ashes, or give them to a family member or someone who cares,” he said.

The box was also marked with a registration number from the Rosehill Crematorium in Linden, New Jersey, where a rep told The Post that Walters’ remains had been picked up by the funeral home.

It’s the funeral home’s responsibility to ensure the remains get to a loved one or relative.

When contacted Wednesday by The Post, the funeral home owner, John Neman, had apparently changed his tune.

“We’re  gonna go pick them up,” he said, adding he has “paperwork” with at least one relatives’ name.

Asked why it took so long to send the ashes, Neman said, “Nobody came to pick them up … That was the address I was given.”

Within hours of The Post’s inquiry, Neman sent a worker to the rocker’s apartment to retrieve the ashes,  Leithauser said.

“I guess you got their attention,” he texted The Post. “A very unfriendly woman from the funeral home just showed up at my door.”

There was no New York City address listed for the dead man’s full name, nor was there an obituary printed in 2017.

On Tuesday, Leithauser tweeted, “I just received package addressed to “current resident”. Address was mine. Inside package are cremated remains of a man from Oct 2017. I do not know the man. I’ve lived here for 6 years.”

The city recommended that anyone who mistakenly receives cremated ashes should contact the state health, which regulates funeral homes.  

As for Leithauser — whose recently reunited band is famous for punk hits like “The Rat” — said he had half-seriously considering just handling the matter himself.

“I wonder if the best thing to do is bury him in the backyard,” he said before the funeral home finally sprang to action.