There have been some interesting items sold on the auction site eBay, but what David Charles sold on the site, took things to a whole new level of weird.
Charles, 21, allegedly stole more than 60 jars of brain and other human tissues in October from a warehouse space at the Indiana Medical History Museum. David Charles apparently broke into the museum and proceeded to steal the brains that came from autopsies performed in the 1890s.
Charles was arrested on December 16, after Mary Ellen Hennessey Nottage, the executive director of the museum, received a phone call from a man that said he purchased six jars of brain matter for $100 a piece. Charles is scheduled to appear in court later this month. The stolen brains come to a total of $4,800.
“It’s horrid anytime a museum collection is robbed,” Nottage said. “A museum’s mission is to hold these materials as cultural and scientific objects in the public interest. To have that disturbed — to have that broken — is extraordinarily disturbing to those of us in the museum field.”
eBay actually has a “Human remains and body parts policy”. The policy reads: “We don’t allow humans, the human body, or any human body parts or products to be listed on eBay, with two exceptions. Sellers can list items containing human scalp hair, and skulls and skeletons intended for medical use. Make sure your listing follows these guidelines. If it doesn’t, it may be removed, and you may be subject to a range of other actions, including limits of your buying and selling privileges and suspension of your account.”
You know its going to be a bad day when the headline when you turn on the TV is "human brains stolen and being sold on eBay" um what
— Haley (@haleywalsh4424) January 2, 2014
We can only hope that Charles’ eBay account was, indeed, suspended.
Image via NDN