Harriet Hawkins pulled out of her garage to go to work Wednesday morning and noticed a bunch of black garbage bags nearby in the alley. She called her husband and asked him to check it out.
About an hour later, she hadn't heard from him, so she called again, and her husband, Warren Udelson, walked to the garage in the alley behind their Oak Park home.
He opened one of the bulky bags, took out a knife and cut through several layers of plastic, the Chicago Tribune reported.
"Finally, I get to a brown sock," said Udelson, an unemployed engineer. "I looked a little farther and saw a foot inside it and I said, 'That's all I need to see.' I called the police."
Police confirmed the discovery, made in the 1000 block of Clarence Avenue.
