Four days after Pope John Paul II died, his likeness was seen in Thomas Dining Center, put up for auction on eBay and removed from the Web site- all within 24 hours.

E.J. Rouzin-Moy, a freshman undecided major, was eating his lunch with a friend Wednesday when he noticed one of his baked chicken breasts looked strangely like a man and decided to inspect it more closely.

“You could tell there was a nose,” Rouzin-Moy said. “That’s the first thing that makes it look like a man.”

The seasoning on the breast is situated in such a way that it looks like the pope’s pileolus, his small hat, Rouzin-Moy said.

Immediately, Rouzin-Moy mentioned to his friend Mike Margolis, a freshman biology major, he had seen items that looked like people sell for big money on eBay, and he was going to put the breast up for auction.

“He saved it, put it in a napkin and brought it to his room,” Margolis said.

Going hungry did not worry Rouzin-Moy.

“I got another piece of chicken so I thought, ‘why not?'” he said.

He told his parents about his venture into the world of online auctioning.

“They thought it was hilarious,” Rouzin-Moy said.

Margolis said the breast looks like a man, although he doesn’t think it looks specifically like the pope, but Rouzin-Moy, a Christian from Skokie who wouldn’t describe himself as an avid churchgoer, disagrees.

Margolis is not the only person who is skeptical.

“I think its kind of ridiculous. I just don’t believe that his food was shaped like John Paul,” said Jenny Enlow, a student supervisor at Thomas Dining Center.

Once the “pope chicken” was posted on eBay, the bidding was set at 99 cents. The only comments Rouzin-Moy received concerning the item were from one supporter and another person who said the auction of the “pope chicken” was “tasteless,” he said.

After less than a day, the highest bid only reached $1.29 for the breast.

After 20 hours, 8,000 page hits and a total of three bids, the “pope chicken” was removed from the Web site, but the reason was unclear at first to Rouzin-Moy, he said.

Rouzin-Moy received an email from eBay notifying him about the item’s removal, claiming the “pope chicken” was not consistent with the site’s material.

He reviewed eBay’s auction policies and could not find any rules or guidelines the chicken didn’t meet, he said. He sent the site administrators an email asking why it was removed and didn’t hear anything back until last night.

Rouzin-Moy did not properly list the item as a collectible, and therefore it was considered a food item, which cannot be sold on eBay, he said.

Rouzin-Moy cited GoldenPalace.com, which once purchased a grilled cheese sandwich for $28,000 from eBay that looked like the Virgin Mary. Wednesday, GoldenPalace.com paid $10,600 dollars to purchase a pretzel that resembles Mary holding the baby Jesus from eBay. A Dorito resembling the pope’s miter was also purchased from eBay for $1,200, Rouzin-Moy said.

“I’m trying to get it back on (eBay),” he said about an hour before it was put back up for auction at 5:37 p.m.

Rouzin-Moy is preserving the “pope chicken” in a freezer in his dorm room, and he said he isn’t too worried about freezer burn. He is curious to see if he will receive any higher bids.

“I saw the other stuff, so I thought why not?” Rouzin-Moy said. “If it doesn’t sell, at least I took a shot.”