High School Science Students Copycat Latest British Columbian Body-Part Crime

In a copycat crime, several high school science students were arrested late Wednesday when they were accused of using a ripe ape carcass they stole from their biology lab, dressing it in a suit, adding grey hair, and passing it off as Pete McHugh during several county board meetings.

“We thought something smelled bad,” said supervisor Liz Kniss. “But he was voting intelligently, and he even took a couple of meetings in the afternoon.”

Under interrogation, the boys said they got the idea from a hoax that was played in British Columbia when someone put a skeletonized animal paw in an athletic sock, placed it in a Nike Air Jordan high-top, packed it with seaweed, and threw it out along the Canadian province’s Pacific coast, trying to pass it off as part of a series of feet that had washed ashore in a longstanding mystery.

“We had the ape,” said Justin Brown, the student that masterminded the hoax. “We just needed the victim, and Pete McHugh seemed to fit the bill.”

The prank came to an ignominious conclusion when Supervisor McHugh returned from vacation and found a large, dead animal voting for social services in his chamber chair.

“I couldn’t believe it; this type of hoax is reprehensible and very disrespectful,” he said. “But the voting record was uncanny! I may go on vacation a bit more.”