oddly enough

oddly enough

Couple plans to sell balloon

FORT COLLINS, Colo.

The former Colorado couple who told authorities their son floated away in a helium balloon have made a video saying they’ll auction off the inflatable to raise money for Japanese earthquake and tsunami relief.

TMZ.com posted the video in which Richard and Mayumi Heene say they’ll work with California lawyer Perry Rausher on the auction. Rausher confirmed to the Coloradoan he is working with the Heenes.

The Heenes’ son wasn’t inside the balloon when it floated away in 2009. Mayumi Heene served 20 days in jail for filing a false report. Richard Heene served 30 days in jail for a felony count of attempting to influence a public servant. Terms of their probation say they can’t profit from their story until 2013.

Argentina intercepts mummy

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina

The shipping label said the mailed package contained replicas of Peruvian ceramics. An X-ray machine used by customs agents discovered it really held three skulls and a mummy more than 2,000 years old.

Authorities said last week that the package was intercepted at Argentina’s central post office, and an Argentine citizen who was waiting for the shipment has been detained as part of an investigation into illegal trading in ancient cultural artifacts.

Officials speculated the package would have been relayed to a museum or a private collector in Europe, where such old bones are in demand because of the blankets and other woven material that surround ancient South American mummies.

A preliminary evaluation by Argentina’s national archaeology institute determined that the bones are from the pre-Inca Paracas culture and date from between the 7th and 3rd centuries B.C., officials said.

Associated Press