Doran says: "You know someone with a name like Ezekiel Rubottom is a person to watch. Described in an E&P article as a "21-year-old artist, occasional hip-hop emcee, and recovering methamphetamine addict", Mr. Rubottom was born with a club foot.
"This summer, upon advice from his doctor, he had the foot amputated. But instead of letting the hospital dispose of the body part, he took it home and stuck it (along with a can of beer and a porcelain horse!) in a bucket of formaldehyde on his front porch.
"When a neighborhood kid told one of his parents about seeing the foot, they called the police, who in turn confiscated the foot pending an investigation. As it turns out, it's perfectly legal to keep your own body parts, so the foot was returned to Mr. Rubottom, who's already planning on giving a couple toes to friends."
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Reader comment: Fannie says: "I wouldn't necessarily call this a custom amongst sane people, but in some areas of the South it's not uncommon to keep various parts that have been removed from the body. My Aunt Sara, for instance, has an entire medicine cabinet set aside for such items as her teeth, my uncle's teeth, his gall stones, and some other bizarre bodily items that have been around since before he died in 1984. And I know loads of other people who do it, too, who have no history of mental illness, so I can't just chalk it up to one kooky aunt. No amputated parts are cruising around the family homes that I'm aware of, but it really isn't so bad to keep a jar full of your own teeth for the kids to find and yell 'gross!' at, is it?"
