--- title: Human Bone Found in Pair of Socks Purchased at Primark description: A police investigation is underway after a Primark customer discovered what is believed to be a human bone inside a pair of socks. canonical: https://time.com/5513238/human-bone-primark/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-01-25T18:47:03.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:57:06.764Z og:title: Human Bone Discovered in New Pair of Socks by Unlucky Customer og:description: "The bone does not appear to be a result of recent trauma" og:url: https://time.com/5513238/human-bone-primark/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Human Bone Discovered in New Pair of Socks by Unlucky Customer twitter:description: "The bone does not appear to be a result of recent trauma" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Free Human Bone Discovered in New Pair of Socks by One Unlucky Customer > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Jan 25, 2019 6:47 PM UTC  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Jan 25, 2019 6:47 PM UTC A police investigation is underway after a [Primark](http://money.com/money/4048190/primark-us-stores-fast-fashion/) customer found what is believed to be a piece of [human bone](http://time.com/3869712/bone-strength-modern-man/) inside a [pair of socks](http://money.com/money/5047685/best-socks-smartwool-brand-running/) purchased at a store in Colchester, England. [According to the Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/jan/25/police-investigate-human-bone-found-in-primark-socks-colchester), Essex Police said that the shopper bought the socks from the Irish clothing retailer on Dec. 10 before reporting the alleged discovery on Jan. 2\. A police spokesman said that the incident did not appear to involve foul play. “Detectives are continuing to investigate following the discovery of what is believed to be part of a human bone in a pair of Primark socks,” the spokesman said. “The bone does not appear to be a result of recent trauma and had no skin or other particles surrounding it. We are liaising with the store who, in turn, are speaking to their suppliers for more information on this incident. Inquiries are ongoing.” Primark has reportedly already apologized to the customer who found the item for “any distress caused” and carried out an investigation at the factory where the socks were made. “No evidence of any kind exists to suggest that any incident has occurred in the factory, so it is highly probable that this object was placed in the socks by an individual for unknown reasons,” a Primark spokesman said. “Primark has been the subject of isolated incidents in the past which have subsequently been found to have been hoaxes.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5513238/human-bone-primark/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5513238/human-bone-primark/"},"headline":"Free Human Bone Discovered in New Pair of Socks by One Unlucky Customer","datePublished":"2019-01-25T18:47:03.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:57:06.764Z","description":"\"The bone does not appear to be a result of recent trauma\"","url":"https://time.com/5513238/human-bone-primark/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Retail","Bizarre","Companies"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5513238/human-bone-primark/","name":"Free Human Bone Discovered in New Pair of Socks by One Unlucky Customer"}}]}] ```