Funeral Fun - Whale of a Transfer

    This is not my story, and I was not even in the industry when it happened, someone I use to work with told me this story as a cautionary tale on why to never keep things in pockets higher than your waist.  But it is such an odd and amusing story I thought it worth telling here.

    He was called to a police transfer at the bay in Rozelle Bay.  The police thought that human remains had washed ashore and so it was his job to take them to the coroner for examination.  Upon arrival he a found gut like organ the size of a large person, which he really doubted would be a human organ.  However the police were playing it safe and had to assume it was human and a criminal case.  As he bent down to "scoop" up the organ his personal keys fel out of his top pocket and straight on to the remains.  Where they promptly sank into the organ.  This really annoyed him as the "thing" on the beach smelt bad, "like rotted fish".  So there he stood, his keys partway inside a rotting organ washed up on the beach.  He started yelling and swearing as all the police and his colleague fell about laughing.  Next thing a dog appeared and started running about, jumping on and eating at the organ.  It then proceded to try and jump on various police members who in turn started yelling at it furiously and shouting for the owner.  One cop had his hand on his gun holster, threatening to shoot it and most likely going to, before someone came up and took the dog away.

    While all this happened the guy said he dug into the organ and got his keys out, with nowhere to wash them he had to put them in his pocket until they got to the coroners.  Once at the coroners he washed his keys in the sink, they dropped off the organ and went on their way.  Some time later he was talking to someone from the coroners where they told him that the organ was actually a whale placenta.

    That's right, he dropped his keys in an old and rotting whale placenta and is probably the only person in the world to do so.  The funeral industry certainly give people unique opportunities.


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