German police search for missing mummified hand
German police have mounted a search for a mummified hand that went missing from a church on Sunday and has not been seen since.
The theft came just when the locals had raised enough money to send it to Düsseldorf University for tests Photo: thelocal.de
By Matthew Day
2:48PM BST 02 Oct 2012
The hand had been kept in a wooden box at St Brigida's Catholic church in the northern town of Legden since 1907, but at some point somebody removed it although there was no sign of forced entry.
Known as the "perjury-hand", local legend dictates that it was severed from its owner when he or she broke an oath, and to serve as a bloody lesson to anybody else contemplating straying from the truth.
But nobody knows the real history behind the hand other than that it was discovered preserved in lime during the demolition of an old fortified town in 1905.
The apparent theft of the hand has left locals at a loss.
"We are deeply saddened. Who would do such a thing," asked Alfred Janning from the town's cultural society.
To compound their misery over the loss of the hand, the theft came just when the locals had raised enough money to send it to Düsseldorf University for tests to determine its age and whether it belonged to a man or a woman.
"They asked me to send the hand," said Mr Janning. "It's too late now."
The disappearance of the hand has left police puzzled at it has no monetary value.
