The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Spaniard buys flat complete with mummy

Previous owner fails to give vacant possession

Increase your knowledge of the latest threats to your busines

A Spanish man has described himself as "shocked" on discovering the mummified corpse of the previous owner sitting on the sofa of his new flat, the BBC reports.

Jordi Giro bought the property in the Costa Brava resort of Rosas sight unseen at auction. However, Maria Luisa Zamora had failed to leave the flat when he arrived to take possession - on the grounds that she'd been dead since 2001. Coroners later said she'd died of natural causes, and the body's preservation was put down to the "salty sea air".

The flat came under the hammer when Zamora failed to keep up the mortgage payments on her holiday home. Neighbours told AFP that "when the garden grew over they assumed she had simply stayed away".

As a rather sad footnote, "questions are being asked" as to why Zamora wasn't missed. Police said "neither her estranged husband nor her children in Madrid registered a missing persons report for the 55-year-old". ®

See what The Register's experts have to say on application security

Don’t Miss

Win a Samsung C6625!

Reg Lucky Draw Windows Mobile handsets up for grabs

Palm_Pre_001_SMIs your cameraphone an oxymoron?

Pic Review iPhone 3G v iPhone 3GS v Palm Pre

Reg black vulture logoReg Mobile and Wireless newsletter is go! go! go!

Site news Email-tasm

Sign up, sign up for The Register IT security newsletter

Narrowcasting for the email classes