A young man in Peru has been caught carrying around an ancient mummy wrapped in bandages. Police in Puno, a Peruvian town near the border with Bolivia, noticed a company of what appeared to be inebriated men in a deserted spot in a park - but after searching one of them, they made a stunning discovery.
The three men in question had found a deserted spot at the Mantaro viewpoint of Puno, southern Peru, and were said to be drinking alcohol when the police came upon them on 25 February. The officers had been carrying out a routine check when they found that the 26-year-old man's thermal bag bearing the name of a Latin American food delivery app, contained a mummy estimated to be between 600 and 800 years old.
Twitter screenshot reportedly showing ancient mummy inside cooler bag carried by man in Peru.
© Photo : Twitter
“A 26-year-old man had a delivery bag labeled ‘Pedidos Ya.’ Inside they found a mummy,” Marco Antonio Ortega, spokesperson for Puno region’s National Police, told media.
The mummified adult remains, described as curled up in the fetal position, still had some soft tissue.
The man, identified by media outlets as Julio Cesar Bermejo, told police that “Juanita” was his "spiritual girlfriend”, whom he would occasionally take out to show his friends from the neighborhood.
“At home, she’s in my room, she sleeps with me. I take care of her,” he was reported as saying.
The mummy was confiscated by the police and handed over to the Peruvian Ministry of Culture. According to a ministry statement, the human remains were 800 years old, and probably came from the district of Patambuco. The mummified individual was presumed to have been more than 45 and about 1.51 meters tall, according to preliminary investigations.
It was added that the remains had been in the possession of the young man's family for about 30 years.
The delivery man and his two friends are now being investigated for possible crimes against Peruvian cultural heritage.