Police in Cape Cod are investigating after a collection of fake legs were left at a memorial to a shark attack victim.
A total of three prosthetic legs have been removed from the site of a beachside tribute to Arthur Medici, a Brazilian engineering student who was mauled to death off the Massachusetts coastline in September.
Officials were puzzled when the first of the fake limbs - which have been painted to look bloodied - appeared in March.
It was removed, according to the Cape Cod Times, only to be replaced in June by another which was bolted to a fence.
One of the legs had a gash painted down the side, while the latest was tied to a cooler box filled with cement.
Local police are investigating, although they are not sure if a law has been broken and are puzzled as to the motive.
It is not vandalism, they told local reporters, but the legs were removed because they were in poor taste.
Lieutenant Michael Hurley told Boston.com: "It's hard for us to make any type of educated decision or guesses. To be honest, what criminal charge would even be there at the moment?"
Medici, 26, was bitten in the leg while bodyboarding some 30 yards from the shore in Wellfleet, Massachusetts.
The student was carried to shore by his friend and medics dashed to the scene, but they could not save his life.
He is said to be the first person to have died from a shark attack in the state since 1936.
