Whether it’s dinosaurs, dolls, cars or princesses, most preschoolers go through a phase where they’re obsessed with something. For 4-year-old Jeremiah Ghantous, it’s delivery truck drivers.
“He gets up anywhere between 4:30 and 5 every morning because he says, ‘I have to get to work’ — he never gets tired of it,” Jeremiah’s mother Leila Ghantous said, chuckling.
Every day, Jeremiah will take items from around the house and package them in boxes or envelopes at his warehouse.
“He has an entire inventory of boxes and envelopes that he’s saved from stuff that’s been purchased, and he wraps stuff in Saran wrap so that it looks like it is still in a package,” Leila added. “Then he uses bubble wrap and paper towels as his packaging.”
Then, Jeremiah will load up his delivery truck, which he made from a cardboard box, and go around the house making deliveries. He has even come up with a number of services for the package’s recipient, such as an opening service or “the bouncer,” where he bounces the package off his truck.
“He even packages things for his friends in the neighborhood, like Rice Krispies treats and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups,” Jeremiah’s father, Emile Ghantous, said, adding, “and delivers them at 5 in the morning.”
Just in time for the holidays, members from LGB7, Amazon’s Rialto fulfillment center, made a special visit to Jeremiah’s Valencia home with some Christmas gifts only he would love — tape and boxes.
“This will take me a year before I run out,” Jeremiah said. “(I’m) so happy.”
During the visit, Jeremiah learned how to use Amazon’s water-activated tape, and was able to ask questions about the packages, as he is extremely observant and pays attention to each detail on the package, such as the various barcodes placed on deliveries.
“We looked everywhere for those yellow stickers (that come on the box), and the closest I could find was (price) stickers,” Jeremiah’s grandfather Barbar said.
In addition, Jeremiah was given a vest, gloves and an honorary employee badge to wear when working, which he wore while giving his guests a tour of his warehouse, which is full of supplies, along with a number of different sized boxes and tape.
Though Jeremiah has rules as to what he cannot package and about keeping his warehouse contained to one area, he has learned to push those boundaries, tasking his grandfather with creating new storage areas for his supplies, which now include the coat closet and garage.
This has been the longest-running obsession, but Jeremiah’s had a few of these obsessions over the years, including trains, garbage trucks, law enforcement and locks.
“He had an assortment of garbage trucks and little garbage cans, so every day all day long, there was little pieces of tissue paper all over the ground that he would put in the garbage can, dump in a garbage truck and then do it all over again,” Leila said.
Barbar also built him a jail so he could go around “arresting” people.
For Christmas, Jeremiah didn’t ask for any toys. Instead, he said he asked Santa for a perforator and shrink wrapper.
