Tuesday, October 02, 2007

I Just Pass 'em On, Folks

Some real weirdness, courtesy of the BBC. First, the headline:

North Carolina pair feud over leg
It gets better:
A US man who stored his amputated leg in a barbecue smoker that was later auctioned off is locked in a custody dispute with the man who bought it.

John Wood's smoker was sold to Shannon Whisnant last week after he fell behind on payments at the storage facility in North Carolina where it was kept.

He wants his leg back but Mr Whisnant says he has a receipt for the smoker's contents and wants to share ownership.
Why, pray tell, would someone want to hold on to another man's amputated leg? The commercial possibilities, of course:
He initially gave the leg to the police, who concluded it had not been removed as a result of a crime and sent it to a funeral home until Mr Wood could pick it up.

But after making money by charging adults $3 (£1.47) and children $1 (49p) to look inside the empty smoker, Mr Whisnant asked for it back.
Let that sink in for a second - life is so dull in North Carolina that people will pay money to look in an empty barbecue smoker! Wood is planning to take custody of the leg from the funeral home where it currently resides ASAP. But Whisnant thinks he's really onto something here:
Having had his offer rejected, Mr Whisnant has threatened to begin legal action if the leg is not returned to him by next week.

He says he has a receipt showing he bought both the smoker and its contents at the auction.

'Everybody knows it's mine, period,' he said. 'And if anyone tries to take it, I want everything they got.'
And people make fun of West Virginia!

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