A funeral home worker in Nebraska has been charged with attempting to steal a dead man's sex doll after being caught on the premises with a body bag, court documents show.
Ryan Smith, 42, was removing a body from an apartment in Omaha alongside local police officers last October when he allegedly took a shine to the dead person's plastic companion.
Prosecutors allege Smith then returned to the apartment complex later that day with a body bag, claiming that he needed the sex doll for "evidentiary purposes."
The complex manager quickly became suspicious, whereupon she allegedly found Smith locked inside the dead person's home with his "shirt untucked and his pants... in disarray", while the doll itself was "sticky to the touch,” according to police.
Last month, a Nebraska judge rejected Smith's contention that there was not enough probable cause to accuse him of the crime, allowing the case to proceed.
The Independent has asked Smith’s lawyer for comment.
According to a witness statement filed by a Sarpy County sheriff's deputy, and obtained by The Smoking Gun, Smith was called to the deceased's apartment on October 6, where he saw "a very real life-size version of an adult female" lying on the bed near the body.
"Near the body on the bed was a very real, life-size version of an adult female," said the deputy, employing the distinctive argot of her trade. "Both of the males that came to collect the body made comments about the sex doll."
That afternoon, the apartment manager contacted the sheriff's office to say that Smith had bluffed his way inside the apartment again, claiming he was sent by the sheriff's office to collect the doll so it could be swabbed for samples.
"[Smith] became upset when she told him that she was not going to allow him to take the doll as evidence," the sheriff's deputy wrote. "Smith then told her that he would return with a search warrant from the sheriff's office to collect the doll.
"As he was leaving, he asked the janitor when the manager of the apartment building [would leave]. The manager told me that she feared he was going to return to the complex and break in and steal the doll."
The deputy added when she inspected the apartment, she found several things amiss, including that the sex doll "appeared to have been altered near her thigh area" and was "sticky to the touch with gloves on."
"I collected the sex doll so that I could have her processed for DNA," the deputy said.
Smith was later fired by the funeral company that employed him, according to Omaha broadcaster WOWT.
