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Sometimes it’s best not to snoop through somebody else’s old, abandoned luggage. Still, you can just picture the scenario as it unfolded Tuesday afternoon…
Rummaging down in the basement of an aging Westlake Neighborhood apartment building, the rental manager and a friend find three rustic steamer trunks. The discovery naturally piques the female pair’s curiosity. Do the valises contain antiques, bankrolls of loot or perhaps other lost treasures?
The first two trunks are disappointingly empty, but seeing as it’s locked, the third one hints at some real surprises. Filled with anticipation, the ladies pick the tumbler and pry it open.
Sure enough, there are lots of collectibles: Vintage books and crystal. A ticket stub from the 1932 Los Angeles Olympiad. Heirloom 1930s postcards. And what’s this? A nice big bulky satchel swaddled in yellowing copies of the Los Angeles Times, also dating from the era. (You know, back when it was a real newspaper that Angelenos actually read.)
But the antiquing adventure soon turns horrific when the women realize the newsy bundle enshrouds two mummified papooses — infant corpses that haven’t seen the light of day in maybe 70 or 80 years.
Now the LAPD is conducting a “death investigation” to determine who the mummies are, along with how exactly they ended up stowed in a basement.
Whatever the ultimate answers, this macabre tale has gumshoe novel/screenplay written all over it — a true L.A. Noir thriller sure to be coming soon to a bookstore or theater near you.
