the police in Peru confiscated a mummified human being several hundred years old from an ancient food supplier. According to the authorities, the mummy would be among 600 and 800 years and it was in a refrigerator that the man used to deliver groceries. Julio César Bermejo, 26, will remain in custody while investigators investigate the case, a government official told AFP on Tuesday.
Bermejo told local media that the mummy he dubbed “Juanita” was “like my spiritual friend”. “At home she stays in my room, she sleeps with me. I take care of her,” he said in a video that was widely shared online. His father brought them home 30 years ago and has kept them ever since.
Police find mummy on patrol
According to the Ministry of Culture, the pre-Hispanic remains are an “adult male mummified, believed to have come from the eastern zone of Puno, region of the Peruvian Andes about 1,300 kilometers southeast of Lima. The swaddled person was” not a Juanita, but a Juan” aged at least 45, said a ministry expert.
Police found the mummy’s remains in Bermejo’s bag on Saturday while patrolling a park in the city of Puno, where the suspect was staying with friends. He denied wanting to sell the mummy. He carried them with him because “my friends wanted to see them”. The Ministry of Culture said it confiscated the mummified remains “to protect and preserve this heritage”.
Peru is rich in archaeological sites and objects. The country’s most visited tourist destination is the famous 15th-century Inca ruined city of Machu Picchu near Cusco.