Wapsi Square Forum

18 Human Heads Found at O'Hare

The Daily Beast wrote:Authorities at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport discovered 18 severed human heads after they opened a mysterious package on Monday. The skin was still attached to the heads. Though the discovery was gruesome, they appear to be medical samples from Italy that were misplaced and police do not suspect foul play. But U.S. Customs and Border Protection has launched an investigation into the incident

{emphasis mine}

The full story is at the New York Daily News

Since the package came from Italy, those are the proper agencies to do this investigation. I don't understand the significance here...

Heck, check the Shipper and Consignee info on the AWB and you'll have a good start.

ShneekeyTheLost wrote:Since the package came from Italy, those are the proper agencies to do this investigation. I don't understand the significance here...

Heck, check the Shipper and Consignee info on the AWB and you'll have a good start.

Just a slow news day so they decided to shock the public with a non story. As far as Customs investigation, that is standard for anything shipped from overseas.

The implication i inferred form the story is that it wasn't Customs who found them...

Fairportfan wrote:The implication i inferred form the story is that it wasn't Customs who found them...

Depends on how the box was labeled. If it ran under Human Remains or Perishable, and the packing label listed the proper contents, why would it be any of their business? In my years at AA Cargo, I shipped a great number of oddities and sundries. I could see it now.

"Uhh... boss? You gotta see this."
"Packing list says one dozen human heads. Is that what is in there?"
"Er... yes."
"Great, are the papers in order? Twelve copies of the packing list with the Consulate stamp?"
"Yes sir, all the papers are in order."
"Great, anything else in there that shouldn't be? No little drug baggies in the mouths or anything?"
"Uhhh... no sir"
"Approve it and move it, we've got six tons of cargo to deal with today."

There's certainly nothing illegal about shipping cadaver pieces as medical samples to a medical institution, after all.

The investigation would be why a perishable shipment of human remains/medical samples got stuck at the airport. Was it a SNAFU in the customs inspection? Did the consignee not show up to pick it up? You've got a dozen rotting heads in the cargo room... figuring out why they are STILL there is more important than how they got there in the first place, since the paper trail makes the latter ridiculously easy to confirm and would take all of thirty seconds and a SABRE consol.

ShneekeyTheLost wrote:The investigation would be why a perishable shipment of human remains/medical samples got stuck at the airport. Was it a SNAFUERr in the customs inspection? Did the consignee not show up to pick it up? You've got a dozen rotting heads in the cargo room... figuring out why they are STILL there is more important than how they got there in the first place, since the paper trail makes the latter ridiculously easy to confirm and would take all of thirty seconds and a SABRE consol.

At least you weren' t trying to fly to a TX wedding during the time when that royal wedding was going on, a tropical storm hitting FL(which gave the airline a "reason" to try and deny me and a special needs child a room for the night when flights were cancelled and unannounced due to flight crew not being able to arrive...Oh, and even had the big brass ones to try and deny a GOLD MEMBER).

Several airlines at O' hare International had mandated no OT going on, and a supervisor left SABRE up without logging out their user and left for the day. Fun was had by all when the big guys came to try and give vouchers to weary travelers.