We Cannot Make This Stuff Up - Honest
We are virtually speechless here. A few days ago, there were reports of a man who had found a human leg in a barbecue smoker he bought at auction. The leg turned out to have once been part of the former owner of the smoker. He lost it in a plane crash (the leg, not the smoker). Oh, sure, that was something fun to post about. But the story is, most definitely, not over yet. You see, the man who bought the smoker (and leg) and the original owner of said appendage are now fighting over custody.
John Wood's leg was amputated near the knee after a plane crash in 2004.
He asked doctors for it back so he could be buried "whole" when he died.
But Mr Wood, of South Carolina, fell on hard times and saw his home repossessed and his possessions auctioned after he couldn't afford to keep them in storage. Unfortunately those possessions included the leg.
The limb, which Mr Wood had kept in a barbecue smoker, was bought by Shannon Whisnant last week in the auction.
Mr Whisnant initially gave it to police, who subsequently turned it over to a funeral home when it became clear it was not the result of foul play.
But Mr Whisnant, who put a sign on the empty smoker charging adults $3 and children $1 for a look, now wants it back.
"He's making a freak show out of it," Mr Wood told The Charlotte Observer. "He wants to put money in his pocket with this thing."
Mr Whisnant, who was unsuccessful in his bid to get the leg from the funeral home, consulted with a lawyer and decided his best move was to persuade Mr Wood to share custody and profits.
"It's a strange incident and Halloween's just around the corner," he said. "The price will be going up if I get [a stake in] the leg."
Actually, we'd rather not say anything at all about this one. We do actually have limits around here, after all.
Weird Stuff | Gaius Monday, 1 October , 2007
By terrence, Monday, 1 October , 2007 @ 6:21 pm
Thankfully