Found at Florida Thrift Store: Actual Human Skull

A skull in the Halloween section of a Florida thrift store turned out to not be a Halloween decoration at all. An anthropologist just so happened to be browsing the store in North Fort Myers and recognized it was actually a real human skull, the Lee County Sheriff's Office posted on Facebook. Detectives responded to the scene and collected the skull; they agree the anthropologist is likely correct, and the medical examiner is now testing the skull and investigating further. The sheriff's office says the case is not believed to be suspicious in nature.

The thrift store owner says the skull was inside a storage unit that was purchased years prior to the skull's discovery by the anthropologist. Florida law prohibits people from "knowingly offer[ing] to purchase or sell ... any human organ or tissue for valuable consideration," which includes bones, CBS News reports, but it's not clear whether anyone might be charged in relation to the incident. In September, a skull was found at an Arizona Goodwill store, ABC 15 reported at the time; in that case, authorities said the skull was believed to be "historic" and not necessarily related to a crime. (In 2014, a similar incident in Texas.)