Christopher Runyan may never look forward to receiving packages again. The Moriches, New York, man had been home awaiting delivery of his recently deceased father's things from the Sinnickson's Moriches Funeral Home. When a bag arrived, Runyan opened it expecting to see the last belongings his dear father had known. Instead, he found an amputated human leg. "The stench that came out almost knocked me over," Runyan recalls.

In their defence, Lee W. Sinnickson, the funeral home's owner, released a statement saying it was against policy for his people to open a "decedent's personal effects." The funeral home had received the bag from Suffolk County Hospital, where the late Paul Runyan had died, and simply forwarded it to Christopher.

A police investigation determined the leg came off of another Suffolk patient. The Law is satisfied that the whole affair was just a matter of "human error," but the hospital is determined to figure out exactly which human it was who erred.

» Scott Saxon