Last updated: October 07
Pair fight over leg

John Wood is locked in a heated custody battle for his own amputated leg.

Wood from North Carolina in the USA lost the limb when it was sold to Shannon Whisnant after he fell behind in payments to the storage facility where it was being kept. The leg was being preserved in a barbeque smoker.

Wood now wants his leg back but Whisnant says he has a receipt for the smoker’s contents and wants to share ownership. The leg was amputated above the knee after a plane crash in 2004.

Wood asked to keep the leg so he could be buried as a whole man when he died, and stored it at the facility after losing his home. But when he failed to pay the necessary rental fees, the storage company auctioned the smoker and all its contents.

On finding the lonely limb Whisnant initially gave it to the police, who concluded it had not been removed as a result of a crime and sent it to a funeral home until Wood could pick it up. But after making money by charging adults $3 (£1.47) and children $1 (49p) to look inside the empty smoker, Whisnant asked for it back.

His request was refused by the funeral home, so he decided to try to persuade Wood to share custody and profits.
“I told him I’d share custody of it...” Whisnant said. “It’s a strange incident and Halloween’s just around the corner. The price will go up if I get the leg.”

Wood has insisted he is not interested in using the leg to make money and plans to travel to Maiden as soon as possible to reclaim it.

“I just think it’s despicable,” he said.