LOS ANGELES — Authorities are investigating what appear to be a pair of lungs found on a sidewalk in South Los Angeles.
A woman called to report finding what she believed to be the organs at 8:30 p.m. (11:30 p.m. ET) Sunday in the 13100 block of Avalon Boulevard.
Sheriff's deputies responded to the scene, and the coroner's office was also called.
Additional testing will determine if the remains are in fact lungs and whether they are human, police said.
Read the original story at NBC33TV.com
Sgt. Robert Dean of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, told the Los Angeles Times: "We don't know what they are. It's really weird."
Ed Winter, spokesman for the Los Angeles County Coroner's office, told the newspaper the possible organs were not attached to a body, and he found the situation "a little strange." He said it was unclear when the examination would be performed.
NBC33 is an affiliate of NBC News.
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Heavy smoker who coughed his lungs out??????
lol
Lizard,
I was just about to post the same thought!!! :o) Dang, I have to get up earlier. LOLOLO
I thought I'd tossed mine out after creating about ten feet of pavement pizza once - man what a night! I think I drank both of those fifths by myself...
Probably pork lungs. The Chinese make various dishes with these and they look very similar to human lungs.
I wonder what the "coroner" would have thought if he would have seen a rack of baby back ribs on the sidewalk?
The M.E. says "..."a little strange." Oh, I forgot...California.
There seem to be a sudden and increasing number of cannibalistic attacks. I'm concerned.
Someone should get a hold of Rex Smith - he might be able to help out with a clue (or two)...
Shuklack
That was funny. I'm sure the police and coroner would've noticed a body attached to the lungs. My son wondered where Ed Winter got his medical degree. I told him he was just a spokesman. His answer was, "But still...".
California is full of nutjobs.
How did Ed Winter ever manage to determine that the lungs were not attached to a body? Is he qualified to make that determination? At least it's only a "little strange" to him.
Perhaps a zombie just got full and couldn't finish his meal...
I heard the expression or " I'm going to rip your lungs out"............I guess someone got pissed enought to do it.
Not just totally strange but really gross. I'm trying not to imagine what they looked like.
Anti-smoking stunt was my first thought.
Perhaps a carnivorous zombie concerned with the risk of 2nd hand smoke? Maybe he just "ate around" the smoke-infested lungs? It is California, after all!
Lungs give zombie's gas.
Come on people... Obviously it was a zombie who dropped his lunch on his/her/its way to work. Can't they just live in pieces... er peace?
Not unusual in California, I see a many great pair of lungs on the streets down there...
sounds like blackmarket organ trade.
Bet they are two small Jellyfish...not lungs.
I am at a loss for words. Last year it was a woman in Ontario Ca. with a torso in a trashcan rolling down a residential street asking for help in disposing it, now this. a few years back I read a story about woman in Compton looking out her kitchen window and saw dog trotting down the street with a human arm hanging from its mouth! I live in California and I am at a loss!
I wonder what is considered 'really' strange to this guy?
Just one of ediets.com's 100 simple ways to lose weight commercials, oh wait, lungs arn't on the list.
Gives a whole new meaning to the expression, "taking a breather".
Taxes are a bit high in LA so maybe they came out with fresh air tax and someone just got fed up and decided to just stop breathing
I love Ed Winter's statement to the newspaper, that the lungs were not attached to a body? Good deduction Ed.
Those weren't lungs! I saw this huge dog chasing Al Sharpton down the street last night, on that same block, then I hear this loud high pitched scream, I always new that man had some balls and that they would get him into trouble some day. the strange part is that his were inflatable, like a puff fish when you get in trouble you puff them up to to scare your opponent, it didn't work on the dog.
Some nut job proberly bought the lungs off the street for his sick Mom with lung cancer. Some seriously messed up people in America now. I would say only in California, but anymore, this could be anyoe's home town.
oops that's where I left those
What EXACTLY are these lungs suspected of doing?
Got lost on their way to a transplant?
Typical PETA stunt...
I agree with 2-sence, proberly were on their way to a transplant and something went wrong.
Another Bath Salt attack maybe? could be a sign?
The zombie apocalypse is upon us!!!! Get your guns and aim for the brain!
Uhm, if they're zombies do they have a brain?
Yep, Zombies. The Zombie disease is something the CDC won't acknowledge, just like Washington won't acknowledge UFO's.
It's safer to just stab them in the head. The noise of gun fire will just attract more. We must take extreme precautions during these trying times! lol.
P.S. Yes, befuddled, Zombies do still have brains. It's the part of the body that is infected, leaving only the primal urge to feed alive. That's the whole premise of a zombie. Duh. lol. j/k about the "duh" part ;)
Aim for the brain? Do they even have those in California?
Dirtydog
Go to the CDC website they have information on what to do in the event of a "Zombie Apocalypse" for some time now..No joke(there really is a few web pages on Zombie Apocalypse on the CDC website).
went on it to make sure it is still there...
http://www.bt.cdc.gov/socialmedia/zombies.asp
Andrew, thanks for the info. I have to get one of those badges for my facebook page!
Boy does she have a set of lungs!
Not anymore....
Worse case of organ rejection I have ever seen.
gtouch, funny stuff :D
big hit of bath salts.....hack,cough.
A suspected pair of lungs?....suspected of what?
BMette, just what I was thinking. Weird.
That's exactly what I was thinking. What did they do? Breathe?
Suspected? What could possibly be masquerading as a pair of lungs?
Probably charged with vagrancy-no visible means of support.
Maybe they're like the empty pair of pale green pants and all they want is a friend.
Suspected ARM robbery?
loitering.
Aw! BMette, You stole what I was thinking! LOL
Heavy breathing. :)
The stupid headline should read "possible" not "suspected".
What color was the suspect, er mean lungs?
It's LA, in California. Nothing surprising. Where's the news?
They belonged to Octomom .... there wasn't room in there for lungs and 8 fetuses.
The most comforting thing about the story is it didn't take place in Miami.
Amen to that
Yea, they only found a pair of kidneys on a doorstoop in Miami last night... LMAO!
Huh!?! The coroner doesn't know what a set of lungs look like unless they are attached to a body? Now that is the kind of coroner that every county needs....lol Good grief says Charlie Brown.
Ed Winter is a Coroner Investigator for LA County, not an MD
LA coroner job qualifications: Just able to show up for work.
Please tell me that if a picture was attached to this piece of news everyone and their brother could tell you what they were looking at! This is the information age, and it would take approximately 30 seconds to look up the human anatomy online. Please give me some solid news MSNBC... I love you guys!
A lot of organs look similar across species.

ah yeah, coming from the same people who identify every ailment as 'definitely cancer' lol
where's my detachable penis?
Oh......hangin' around probably.
@sledgehammer4664 - if you need a replacement try Popeils Pocket Penis! Handy lil device you can take with you everywhere you go!
Hmmm........."pocket penis". I learn something new everytime I come on these threads. I only heard about "pocket pussies". How convenient. Off the subject again, but very interesting indeed, I must say.
Couldn't stand the a-hole anymore, probably ran off with the nutty neighbors.
Perhaps the Werewolf of London? Warren Zevon indicated he'd rip your lungs out!!!
Their former owner's name was Jim, so that should narrow it down.
I just want to meet his tailor!
He was drinking a pina colada at Trader Vic's
And his hair was perfect
Howoooooo
A little old lady was mutilated late last night.... (Disclaimer: not really, its a verse from the song.)
This is troll heaven !!!
Takes the phrase "I'm going out for a breath of fresh air" to a whole new level...
Ha-ha!
Good one!
Wow, they say the smog is bad in LA, but I had no idea....
Godless society. Will these Lungs , be voting for obama?
SprtstrXLCH banned, multiple of meltdown69, also banned. Don't register multiple accounts, folks!
Organ trafficking.
Good one!
I think they go with the feet found up in Canada. Sounds like the guy cutting up bodies was dropping pieces off all over the place. The feet he put in the mail but maybe he ran out of money for postage so he just left the lungs on the side walk.
Maybe they were going by Air Mail!!!!
Or organ IN traffic.
Probably on his way to Organ and got laid over at LAX
Interestingly enough, I've been laid at LAX before also -
Breathe deep......
Stories like this really take my breath away!
We will breath a collective sigh of relief if these are not human lungs.
Medical College students playing a prank--took a specimen from the lab, left it where it would be found, and is reading these comments and snickering.
Organ trafficking.
Organs meant for transplant got lost in transit.
Organs meant for medical experimentation lost in transit.
The people from the show 'Oddities' lost a bit of their collection.
Medical waste after an autopsy fell off the truck.
Voodoo/Santeria ritual (unlikely but possible)
Ancient Maya/Aztec/MesoAmerican ritual called the 'blood eagle' where as a sacrifice to the gods a victim was stretched out on an altar, tied down, his ribcage was slit/cracked and his lungs--still attached and functioning-- were pulled from his torso and spread out on his chest. It would take days for the victim to die of exposure and thirst. I believe it was a last-ditch sacrifice to the gods to break a drought or prevent disaster or after an earthquake. In this case, maybe someone did it to stave off the December 2012 world ending? They obviously didn't know archaeologists found evidence at a new dig that the Mayan calendar does go on for another 5,000 year baktun. Also unlikely but still possible in this crazy world.
These lungs may not be human, could be animal from an animal necropsy.
Perhaps a serial killer is going to start leaving body parts around LA as trophies of his kills.
like the last example. it will be on L&O next season.count on it.
No... someone who was disemboweled and had their organs left sitting outside their skin (regardless of whether the organs were still attached and functional) would be dead within hours from circulatory shock. If anyone tells you it'd take days and they'd die of thirst, they're just embellishing and trying to make the legend sound sexier.
if your lungs are pulled out of your body you would die within moments as you wouldnt be able to breath. the diaphram is the muscle that moves up and down to fill and empty the lungs. it couldnt do anything outside the ribcage.
For sure ya think? ( biting nails )..........lol
Yeah, and that too, lol.
I pulled that from a couple of different sources, so you are probably right. The ritual itself is fascinating, though unlikely to be the cause in this case.
Wow. Somebody will be missing those things!
[Cops seal off area and surround suspect]..... OK, don't move....Put your hands in the air.... Don't even breath!!!!
maybe they were saddlebags from an old John Wayne movie? huh mr. coroner? ever think of that? or perhaps ass shavings from kim kardashian surgery? jlo? oprah?
Low blow!
OK.. Ive heard of "Beating the @!$%#" out of somebody but... DAMN !!!
talk about coughing up a lung......but really hope there not....
medical marijuana is some harsh stuff, you cough you get off
If they found them in water, would they be aqua lungs?
THAT"S IT! These are probably stage props for the upcoming Jethro Tull reunion tour, that fell off the truck on the way to the gig!
They looked to be thick as a brick.