When a worker at a German amusement arcade heard a suspicious “ticking and humming” sound coming from a bin in the men’s toilets, she did not hesitate to call police.
The alert in the town of Halberstadt triggered full bomb disposal procedures, seeing more than 90 people evacuated from surrounding buildings and a specialist disposal team dispatched on Tuesday as the area was closed off.
But almost three hours of high-profile security operations came to an abrupt end when explosives officers found the “suspicious object” in question was a discarded sex toy.
Peter Hartmann, a spokesperson for Saxony-Anhalt Police, told The Independent that a 38-year-old woman alerted police shortly after 4pm.
The concerned employee described “strange noises…like ticking and buzzing” emanating from a bin in the men’s toilets, he said, adding: “In these cases there are clear guidelines for police to implement with all associated measures.
“So the amusement arcade in the Strasse des 20. Juli (20 July) was immediately evacuated and the road was closed.
“It was also necessary to evacuate around 90 employees of surrounding business and shops.”
A specialist bomb disposal squad arrived at 6.45pm with experts in improvised explosive devices and entered the building.
“But instead of finding an explosive device in the toilet bin, they recovered a battery-operated sex toy, which sounded particularly loud because of the bin’s resonance,” Mr Hartmann said.
The harmless discovery prompted police to stand down the alert at 7pm, reopening the road and allow employees and customers back into the arcade.
Officers took a photo of the offending item, which appeared to be a vibrating penis ring thrown away along with its packaging.
But the case is not closed, with police investigating whether the bizarre incident was an accent or hoax.
Mr Hartmann said: “The identity of the person who deposited the object there deliberately is unknown, and a criminal investigation into the matter is underway.”
