While working for a junk removal service, you’ll come across cool finds like an antique typewriter and a vintage KFC sign. But the human skeleton, how likely is that?
Gareth Roberts, franchise owner of JUSTJUNK, has a long history.
Speaking on the phone with the Daily Hive, Roberts recalls when the company came across a human skeleton while working in St. Catharines, Ontario. Roberts said the team was called to clear out the basement of the residence and found a box with a body inside.
“It’s creepy and creepy,” says Roberts, although we can’t confirm the exact date the skeleton was discovered. “It wasn’t a pile of bones. It was whole, all connected with copper. ”
The skeleton, which the JUSTJUNK team calls “Bone Man,” is almost 200 years old. Mid-Victorian (1850-1870) medical skeleton.
No one knows how it landed in the Canadian basement.
Mike Thorne CEO of Just Junk posing with Bone Man.
“They took the real corpses off the battlefield and sold them to England as ‘medical skeletons,'” says Roberts. “Back in the day, that was the only way to learn about the human body. There was no fake plastic stuff like we have now.”
According to Roberts, the team took great care of Bone Man, even taking him on a media tour in the early 2010s. However, no one has given the skeleton an actual name.
“I didn’t want to name him. That would be creepy,” Roberts reveals.
The company continued to make spooky discoveries over the years. Roberts explains that on one occasion he came across a “massive” animal cage containing only snake skins. “Yeah, we were out of there!”
But as Roberts points out, nothing beats the human skeleton.
The Bourne Man’s final resting place (if you can call it that) is the company’s headquarters in St. Catharines. According to Roberts, people are interested in getting a skeleton, but he’s seen as part of the company.
“He’s fine where he is.”
