The Family Had Reported Him Missing Just Hours Earlier… Then the 39-Year-Old Man’s B0.dy Was Found in a Place No One Could Have Ever Imagined
The man had been reported missing by his family only hours earlier (Image: GOOGLE MAPS)
Police in Catalonia encountered one of the most unusual accidental death cases in recent memory after receiving a report from a father and son in 2021.
The pair were out walking on a Saturday afternoon when they came across a papier-mache stegosaurus sculpture positioned outside a building in Santa Coloma de Gramenet, a Barcelona suburb.
They quickly detected a terrible odor emanating from the structure and moved closer to investigate, discovering a body visible through a gap in the statue’s hollow leg.
The remains belonged to a 39 year old man, found by the regional police force, the Mossos d’Esquadra, who extracted the body from within the sculpture.
An official spokesperson explained the man appeared to have entered the dinosaur’s leg – going in headfirst – while attempting to recover a mobile phone he had dropped, and subsequently became stuck, unable to free himself, reports the Daily Star.
The accident happened in Santa Coloma de Gramenet, a suburb of Barcelona (Image: Getty)
“It’s an accidental death; there was no violence,” she stated at the time.
“This person got inside the statue’s leg and got trapped. It looks as though he was trying to retrieve a mobile phone, which he’d dropped. It looks like he entered the statue headfirst and couldn’t get out.”
The interior of the sculpture was so confined that three fire brigade units responded to the scene and were compelled to cut open the stegosaurus replica’s leg. Local reports from the time indicated that the man’s family had reported him missing just hours before his body was found.
The man’s body had to be retrieved by three fire brigade teams (Image: Europa Press via Getty Images)
However, police believed he had likely been trapped for a couple of days and were unable to determine exactly how he came to be wedged upside down in the first place.
Several Spanish news outlets, including El País and La Vanguardia, covered the case, noting that the incident sparked widespread discussion in the local community and attracted both regional and national media attention due to its highly unusual circumstances.
The statue had been positioned outside the city’s Cubic Building, where it served as decorative signage for a former cinema.
Following the grim discovery, Santa Coloma de Gramenet’s city council confirmed in official statements that the statue had been removed.
SOURCE: DAILY EXPRESS
https://www.the-express.com/news/world-news/213009/mans-body-found-inside-dinosaur
