Catalan police were dispatched to investigate the body of a man found inside a large dinosaur statue Saturday, just a couple hours after his family reported him missing in the small town of Santa Coloma de Gramenet, a suburb of Barcelona.
The 39-year-old’s body was first discovered wedged in the leg of the statue – a papier-mâché stegosaurus – by a father and his son playing in the area. They reportedly saw the body through a crack after noticing a strange smell, according to the BBC.
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A spokesperson for local law enforcement (Mossos d’Esquadra) told VICE World News that the cause of death is currently unknown, but confirmed that investigators suspect that he dropped his phone inside the statue and became wedged head-first in one of the rear legs while trying to grab it.
“We have no reason to believe that his death is criminal,” a spokesperson said. “We think he got stuck in the leg after dropping something.”
The spokesperson added that the man likely was stuck in the statue for over a day.
After the death was reported to authorities, a team of police officers and firefighters had to saw open the Stegosaurus and pull the body out with the help of a crane.
Alex Finley walked by the statue at around 2PM on Saturday while the fire brigade was at work, but did not think much of it at the time.
“I happened to be in the neighbourhood for my son’s football match,” she told VICE World News. “I was not familiar with the statue, so when I saw it and the police and fire department, I figured they were transporting it somewhere, and the thought of a Stegosaurus moving about town seemed funny to me, so I snapped a picture. It wasn’t until I saw the media reports today that I understood it’s actually a terrible, tragic story.”
“I did not see them sawing the statue,” she continued. “They had blocked off most of the view.”
As of now, a number of questions regarding the bizarre and tragic incident remain unanswered. Catalan daily newspaper Diari de Girona reported that the man’s family had not heard from him for two days before reporting him missing. It also remains unclear how the man initially entered the statue.
Police emphasised that further investigation is needed before arriving at any definitive conclusions.
“We will be doing an autopsy to find out more,” the police spokesperson added.
