Natchez Police often get reports of lost and found bicycles and wallets.

But prosthetic legs are a rarity.

A patrolman found a prosthetic leg, a cane and a pair of shoes Under-the-Hill Saturday.

When they saw there were traces of blood on the leg, police started investigating.

Officers looked around the area for abandoned cars, checked for reports of missing persons, and talked to Silver Street businesses, Sgt. Craig Godbold said.

No luck.

That’s when the police decided to open the leg.

“We had assumed it had a serial number, because we had used a serial number on breast implants from a murder victim to identify a body years ago,” Natchez Police Chief Mike Mullins said.

Sure enough, officers found a serial number inside the foot and called the local manufacturer Tuesday, Godbold said.

“We asked, ‘Could this be a prank?’” he said. “The company said since the leg cost anywhere from $8,000 to $12,000, it probably wasn’t a prank.”

The company matched the number to the owner. Mullins would not release the man’s name, saying the man would likely be embarrassed.

Godbold found the one-legged man at his residence Tuesday.

“I knocked on the door,” Godbold said. “Being the investigator I am, I looked at him and said, ‘Sir, are you missing a leg?’ He looked down at his one leg and said, ‘As a matter of fact, I’m missing my right leg.’

“I said, ‘I’ve got a spare here.’”

From talking to him, Godbold discovered the man had been out drinking and fell, losing his leg, his cane and two shoes. When he fell, he must have been injured enough to bleed, leaving blood on the prosthetic leg.

“I said, ‘Why didn’t you report it?’” Godbold said. “We were going to start dredging the river.”

Godbold said the man was embarrassed because he couldn’t remember where he had been.