Body found in sleeping bag on trolley on sidewalk in New York

A body wrapped in a sleeping bag was found on a handcart on a Manhattan sidewalk on Friday evening, police said.

The gruesome discovery was made after police were called around 5 p.m. to investigate a “suspicious package” outside 207 East 27th Street in Kips Bay, according to the NYPD.

The sleeping bag was left among several black garbage bags that were placed on the sidewalk for garbage collection.

“It looked like the perpetrator had gone to great lengths to wrap it up and leave it lying around in the open,” local resident Ted Oehmke told The Post.

“But I was quite surprised to see it lying there in the regular trash, as if the garbage collectors were going to pick it up and take it away,” said Oehmke, who posted a video and photo on social media of officers surrounding the sleeping bag.

Oehmke said he thought he saw the top of the head as he passed by the crime scene.

“I see people sleeping here all the time,” he said. “It looked like it could just be one, it’s like another body on the floor. The people I see here aren’t dead, but they look like they could be half the time, so I guess it wasn’t that big of a shock.”

Another resident said the abandoned body left her feeling unsettled.

“You don’t see something like this very often in this area, so it’s a little scary,” said Marina Alves.

The identity of the person, especially age and gender, is not yet known.

It is not yet known whether the death was the result of a crime. An investigation by the chief medical examiner’s office is still pending, police said.