EW YORK - A doctor pleaded guilty on Thursday to stealing a severed hand, which he gave to a stripper who displayed it in her New Jersey apartment.

A woman stands in front of a montage of photos at a strip club in New York in this June 15, 2005 file photo. [Reuters]

Ahmed Rashed faces five years probation for stealing the hand in 2002 from a cadaver at a New Jersey medical school, an assistant prosecutor for Middlesex County said on Thursday.

Rashed practices medicine at a hospital in Los Angeles and stole the hand while studying in New Jersey, the prosecutor said.

The woman kept the hand in a jar of formaldehyde in her apartment where it was discovered by police during an unrelated investigation.