A man was discovered with a centuries-old mummy in a cool bag and told police the remains were his ‘spiritual girlfriend’.
Former food delivery driver, Julio Cesar Bermejo, 26, was approached by cops after he was seen drinking alcohol at an archeological site called the Mantaro viewpoint, in Puno, Peru.
While at the site, Bermejo was spotted with a red cooler bag emblazoned with the logo of Uruguayan takeaway company Pedidos Ya.
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But rather than some snacks - or even beers - inside, the bag contained mummified remains, which experts believe to be between 600-800 years old.
Agent Marco Antonio Ortega, a spokesperson for Puno region’s National Police, told CNN: “A 26-year-old man had a delivery bag labeled ‘Pedidos Ya.’ Inside they found a mummy.”
The body was found swaddled in bandages and was stowed away in the fetal position.
The already incredibly bizarre story took an even more unbelievable twist, when Bermejo told authorities the remains usually share his bed and that he considers them in some sort of relationship.
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He’s reported to have said: "At home, she's in my room, she sleeps with me. There’s my bed, the TV set and next to it, there’s Juanita.
"I take care of her. It’s like, if you’ll pardon the expression, as if it were my spiritual girlfriend."
Bermejo said his dad had given him the mummy and that it had been in his family for more than 30 years.
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He claimed the family had intended to donate it to a museum but when the plans fell through it ended up staying with them.
Bermejo, who was with two other men at the time, said he had taken the mummy out with him because ‘my friends wanted to see it’ and denied that he had been trying to sell it.
Although Bermejo had named the remains ‘Juanita’, experts have said the body belonged to an adult male.
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The mummy is said to be of a man who was at least 45 years old, with one worker confirming: “It's not a Juanita, it's a Juan.”
Peru's Ministry of Culture said the mummy was ‘presumably from the eastern area of Puno', a region in the Peruvian Andes’ and said it had been seized by officials ‘with the aim of protecting and preserving this heritage’.
On Tuesday (28 February), a government official told AFP Bermejo would remain in custody while cops looked into the case.
Topics: World News
Claire Reid