Saturday, April 28, 2007

Winnie the Pooh causes bomb scare

Winnie the Terrorist Pooh caused some high anxiety last week in Missouri:

"WRIGHT CITY, Mo. (AP) — A man who went to a Missouri post office to pick up a novelty phone he ordered over the Internet was alarmed that the package was ticking; it subsequently created a bomb scare.

It turned out that the phone — shaped like Winnie the Pooh — had a feature the customer did not know about: An incoming call causes Winnie's head to spin, and the feature apparently had been activated during shipping.

The ticking that prompted evacuation of the Wright City post office Thursday morning was Winnie's head repeatedly hitting the side of the package, Missouri Highway Patrol spokeswoman Cpl. Julie Scerine said.

When authorities contacted the sender, he verified that it was nothing sinister."

I daresay Winnie's isn't the only head spinning down there in the Land of the Freaked. I'd recommend the aerial spraying of Prozac, but if people are flipping out over a ticking stuffed bear, imagine what the response to crop dusters would be. (Check out the picture: looks like even Winnie himself is a wee bit paranoid, sleeping with a shotgun. What the hell is going on down there???)