NEW YORK, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- A piece of flesh and bone found outside a New York City home is part of a bear's paw, not a child's severed foot as initially feared, police said.
Paul Lawrence found the appendage near his trash can in New York's Queens borough Sunday night and called police, who thought the remains were human and brought in cadaver-detecting dogs to search the area.
A medical examiner, however, ruled Monday the remains are part of a bear's claw, the New York Post reported Tuesday.
Still a mystery, however, is how the bear paw wound up in the city. Bradley Adams, a forensic anthropologist with the city's medical examiner's office who identified the paw, could only offer The New York Times a theory: "A hunter shot the bear, and may have cut off the claws for the souvenir."
