MAIDEN, N.C. -- Shannon Whisnant has bought all kinds of things over the years, but nothing prepared him for what he found inside a smoker he bought at an auction - a human leg.

"I've been sick on my stomach since I opened it up," Whisnant said. "You ever seen a dried out piece of fruit? (It looked) sort of like that."

But Whisnant didn't find fruit. At first, he thought it was a piece of driftwood. When he took a closer look, he noticed the item was wrapped in paper. The man unwrapped the item and discovered a human leg.

He said his mother and her boyfriend didn't believe him at first.

"I said, 'There it is, look at it.' (I) laid it down and they looked at it, and they looked at me, puzzled, like 'what are you going to do?'" Whisnant said. "And I told them, 'I'm taking it back where I bought it.'"

Whisnant bought it at a storage warehouse auction. He called the police, and officers were able to find the leg's owner, who for some reason had decided to keep the leg after it was amputated following a plane crash.

"I heard he called the office at the mini-warehouse and was laughing about it - 'Oh, you all found my foot in the smoker.' I don't think it's too funny myself," Whisnant said.

Though the leg is in the custody of the Maiden Police Department, they say the owner will be allowed to come pick it up. Whisnant hopes he takes better care of it this time around.