A pre-Halloween shopping trip in Florida has taken an eerie turn after a real human skull was discovered in a charity shop on the Gulf coast of Florida.
An eagle-eyed anthropologist browsing the store on Saturday spotted the skull and suspected it belonged to a human, officials said, so she reported the find to local police.
Detectives visited the store and agreed it was likely to be human.
The store owner told investigators the skull had been in a storage unit after being purchased several years ago.
At this time law enforcement officials do not think there is any reason to believe the case is suspicious.
Under Florida state law, “no person shall knowingly offer to purchase or sell … any human organ or tissue for valuable consideration”. The statute covers eyes, corneas, kidneys, livers, hearts, lungs, pancreases, bones and skin.
A similar finding was reported in Arizona in September when a human skull was found in a donation box at a Goodwill charity store.
Experts said while the skull was human, it was probably ancient and not associated with any crime.
While the surprise findings in Arizona and Florida may sound creepy, skulls discovered by researchers have captivated anthropologists and shed light on the evolution of humankind.
In 2019, researchers discovered a nearly complete 3.8 million year-old skull in Ethiopia in Africa.
Source: BBC.Lee County Sheriff's Office.
