Guard Returns Artifact CHICAGO, IL (wqub) - A Mayan artifact is returning home to Guatemala . That's because a U-S Customs and Border Protection officer seized the statue from a suitcase at O'Hare.
Lynette Kalsnes reports.

Officer Edward Gross was working the late shift at O'Hare when some agents spotted a black lump in a suitcase.

Inside, wrapped in a jean jacket, was a skinny statue made of stone. Gross says he knows the way the Mayan gods look. And he recognized the statue as pre-Columbian, and seized it.

GROSS: I'm protecting the archaeological sites around the world because when they take out a piece like that, they destroy the site, and ruin it for future generations to find out what the peoples were like and how they lived and what they ate and how they worshipped.

So those are all important things to know.

The traveler who was trying to bring the statue into the U-S told customs officials that a Guatemalan family gave him the statue to thank him for volunteer work.

The traveler was not charged.
I'm Lynette Kalsnes, Chicago Public Radio.

© Copyright 2009, wqub