Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
What you must do if you find a human skull.
The law doesn’t specifically say you must report it
If there’s no ax sticking out of the skull....
Matt: If I'm digging in my back yard and I come across a human skull, do I have to report this to anyone, or can I keep it? Does it matter how deep I find it? And what if I'm camping and find it on state or federal land? Please let me know. — Andy Dumaine, @juno.com
I’ve notified the authorities to swing by and check your house for unusual lawn ornaments, so you might peek through the curtains occasionally to watch for that black-and-white rolling up to the crime scene. If there’s no ax sticking out of the skull, hinting that a crime’s been committed, you probably can keep your little find under your hat. But you can’t plant ivy in it or use it as a hood ornament or even rebury it.
Section 7050.5(b) of the state Health and Safety Code says when you find the skull, you have to put down your shovel, back carefully away from the site, and leave it undisturbed until the coroner’s had a chance to take a gander at it. But the law doesn’t specifically say you must report it, assuming you can forever live with that hole in your yard. Could the busy legislative bees in Sacramento have assumed you’d be a good citizen and come forward without being forced to? How naive. Of course, if things turn ugly, you could be charged with concealing evidence or some variation; but then a guy who’d want to keep a stranger’s skull around the house probably wouldn’t worry much about that.
There’s no question that if your skullduggery took place on public land you’d be breaking the law. Strictly speaking, you can’t even remove federal or state stones or dirt, so a big chunk of human being would be pretty much out of the question. I’ve gotta figure that anybody who found a skull in their vegetable garden would be so curious to find out more, they’d eventually turn it in to somebody. Even you, Andy.
Here's something you might be interested in.
What you must do if you find a human skull.
The law doesn’t specifically say you must report it
What you must do if you find a human skull.
The law doesn’t specifically say you must report it
If there’s no ax sticking out of the skull....
Matt: If I'm digging in my back yard and I come across a human skull, do I have to report this to anyone, or can I keep it? Does it matter how deep I find it? And what if I'm camping and find it on state or federal land? Please let me know. — Andy Dumaine, @juno.com
I’ve notified the authorities to swing by and check your house for unusual lawn ornaments, so you might peek through the curtains occasionally to watch for that black-and-white rolling up to the crime scene. If there’s no ax sticking out of the skull, hinting that a crime’s been committed, you probably can keep your little find under your hat. But you can’t plant ivy in it or use it as a hood ornament or even rebury it.
Section 7050.5(b) of the state Health and Safety Code says when you find the skull, you have to put down your shovel, back carefully away from the site, and leave it undisturbed until the coroner’s had a chance to take a gander at it. But the law doesn’t specifically say you must report it, assuming you can forever live with that hole in your yard. Could the busy legislative bees in Sacramento have assumed you’d be a good citizen and come forward without being forced to? How naive. Of course, if things turn ugly, you could be charged with concealing evidence or some variation; but then a guy who’d want to keep a stranger’s skull around the house probably wouldn’t worry much about that.
There’s no question that if your skullduggery took place on public land you’d be breaking the law. Strictly speaking, you can’t even remove federal or state stones or dirt, so a big chunk of human being would be pretty much out of the question. I’ve gotta figure that anybody who found a skull in their vegetable garden would be so curious to find out more, they’d eventually turn it in to somebody. Even you, Andy.
Comments