A former delivery man found with a 600-year-old mummy in a cooler bag

Police in Peru have seized a 600- to 800-year-old human mum­my from a for­mer food deliv­ery man who claimed to have kept it in his home for 30 years.

The mum­my was found inside a cool­er bag that the man used to deliv­er food in the past.

The man, Julio Cesar Berme­jo, 26, will remain in cus­tody while inves­ti­ga­tors inves­ti­gate the case, a gov­ern­ment offi­cial told AFP on Monday.

Berme­jo told local media that the mum­my, whom he calls “Juani­ta,” was “like my spir­i­tu­al girlfriend.”

“At home, she’s in my room, she sleeps with me. At home, she’s in my room, she sleeps with me. I take care of her,” he said on social media. told in the video.

Berme­jo said his father brought the mum­my home about 30 years ago.

Accord­ing to the Min­istry of Cul­ture, the pre­his­toric arti­fact is “the mum­my of an adult male pre­sumed to be from east­ern Puno,” an area of the Peru­vian Andes about 1,300 kilo­me­ters (more than 800 miles) south­east of Lima.

“It’s Juan, not Juani­ta,” said a min­istry expert, adding that the mum­my belonged to a man at least 45 years old.

The body was wrapped in ban­dages and held in a fetal position.

Police found the body in Berme­jo’s bag while patrolling a Puno city park with his friends on Saturday.

Berme­jo denied he was try­ing to sell the mum­my, say­ing he had it “because a friend want­ed to see it.”

The Min­istry of Cul­ture announced that it had acquired the mum­mi­fied remains “for the pur­pose of pro­tect­ing and pre­serv­ing this heritage”.

Peru is a coun­try rich in archae­o­log­i­cal sites and relics. Machu Pic­chu, an Inca for­ti­fied city built near Cus­co in the 15th cen­tu­ry, attracts the most tourists.

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