from the smoker

John Wood is trying to get from South Carolina to Catawba County today to retrieve his leg.

On Tuesday, a Maiden man found the lost appendage in a barbecue smoker he'd bought from a storage facility.

The man took the smoker home, looked inside, and saw something wrapped in paper. Inside, said Maiden Police Chief Troy Church, was Wood's leg -- the foot and most of the calf. Police are keeping it for Wood.

Doctors amputated Wood's leg after a 2004 plane crash in Wilkes County that killed Wood's father and injured two other family members, Wood said.

"When it was amputated, he told (the hospital) that he wanted that leg saved," said his sister, Marin Wood-Lytle. "He wanted to keep the bone because he wanted to be buried as a full man." Instead of a bone, a funeral home delivered the whole leg.

Wood put it in his freezer, his sister said. It became something of a joke when she came over. "I wouldn't even get a Pepsi out of his refrigerator."

But it stopped being funny when Wood got behind on his power bill and his electricity was shut off, the sister said.

Despite his family's protests, Wood-Lytle said, her brother took the screen off his front porch, wrapped the leg inside and "tied it to two posts to let it dry."

Wood-Lytle said her brother was homeless for a while, living in his van, which he eventually lost.

Their mother put his belongings in a storage facility in Maiden, about 45 miles northwest of Charlotte, Wood-Lytle said, and paid for the first few months.

Reached Tuesday, Wood declined to answer most questions. He did say he put the leg in the smoker because "I didn't have anything else to secure it in. There were no macabre intentions."

Maiden police talked with the storage facility's owner, who was auctioning off items in the units of people who were behind on their payments. Wood said he asked the owner of the storage facility not to open his belongings and is trying to get from Greenville County, S.C., to get his things.

On Tuesday his sister was watching TV and saw the man who found her brother's leg and thought "it just seems to never go away."

She said that on Tuesday, an officer came by and said they had her brother's leg.

"John had told them `how about just dropping it off at my sister's and she'll just hold it until I get there?' " she said.

"I told them `don't bring that thing in my house.' "

 

"He wanted to keep the bone because he wanted to be buried as a full man."

without a brain

 

idiots

 

now the dude that bought the smoker wants to keep the leg. what the hell is wrong with people?

 

It's his leg. He has the receipt to prove it.

 

you are not right

 

I know. But in this case, that was actually his claim on the news the other night. I think the people who really aren't right are the ones willing to pay to see it.

 

but he wants to make money showing that leg to them. why in the world would you care to see it?

 

TV judge rules man can keep amputated leg

Associated Press

Nobody needs two left feet.

That's according to television show host Judge Greg Mathis, who ruled a South Carolina man whose amputated left leg ended up inside a smoker that was then auctioned off should be able to keep his appendage.

"You're not getting that leg. I'm not giving you the man's leg," Mathis told Shannon Whisnant in issuing his decision on an episode of the "Judge Mathis" show that aired today.

The judge did order John Wood, whose left leg was amputated after a plane crash, to reimburse Whisnant $5,000. Whisnant, of Maiden, N.C., told Mathis he wanted to build a museum and charge people $10 to look at the limb.

Whisnant said he had received calls from around the world from people wanting to see the leg and thought the museum could be profitable.

"Bunch of weirdoes out here," the judge said. "What's special about him and his leg?"

Wood, who joked to the judge about losing his leg twice, left his limb in the cooker in a storage shed. When the Greenville man couldn't pay the bill, the items were auctioned.

Wood said he wants the leg back so that it can be cremated with him when he dies.

Whisnant claimed it was his property.

"It's mine. It's a helluva conversation piece," he said.

Mathis dismissed Wood's claim for emotional distress caused by media coverage of the case.

"I think that you all, quite frankly, are enjoying this," Mathis said.

 

Wonder how it is they ended up on tv for this, did the show seek them out?

lol, dumb fuck went on tv himself