Facebook has changed the world, not only through the way people connect with others but the very way people conduct business.
Who hasn’t seen professional businesses advertise through Facebook? Then are people who sell puppies and so forth on the social media platform. However, there are individuals who sell downright oddities on Facebook.
This follows the arrest of a 38-year-old woman from Colorado, who is facing smuggling charges after selling some rather unusual products.
While smuggling is an age-old business, this Colorado woman was not smuggling your run of the mill items. She is accused of attempting to sell jars containing human foetuses to a buyer in the UK.
While her package was in transit from Canon City, Colorado, the ghastly stock made a stop-off in San Francisco. It is here that customs officials noticed the package lacked a certificate stating it contained no dangerous or illegal contents.
After X-raying the box, which according to its label contained school teaching aids and T-shirts, authorities noticed its contents were far from anything resembling clothing or educational material. Opening the box, the authorities were flabbergasted to discover three human foetuses in glass containers.
Under federal law it is illegal to transfer human foetal tissue, resulting in charges being brought against the woman, Emily Suzanne Cain.
Upon obtaining a warrant, officials discovered Cain had been selling the foetuses via Facebook. She was selling one foetus for $500 while attempting to sell a bundle of four foetuses for $20,000.
According to Gizmodo, a UK based media site, the package contained two sets of fingerprints. Namely Cain’s and a man by the name of Glen McGinty, as well as a note referencing McGinty Fine Oddities.
McGinty Fine Oddities claims on its website that it sells the best oddities and curiosities while supplying the top collectors, institutions and museums around the world.
While the package was bizarre, it does not seem the foetuses were obtained through sinister means. Rather, the confiscated foetuses are almost 100 years old, and are thought to be stillbirths which were donated to Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska.
However, university officials claim the university does not sell its specimens. Rather, the institute cremates all specimens which it no requires. How these foetuses escaped the furnace and end up being sold through a private seller has not yet been made public.
Cain pleaded not guilty to the charges. She will now go before the US District Court in San Francisco on November 20.
