Indonesian police have confiscated a blow-up doll from a village in Sulawesi after it was mistaken for a ‘fallen angel’ by local villagers.
In March, a doll was discovered washed up on the beach by a local fisherman in the Banggai islands. The villagers were extremely excited by their discovery, as they thought they had been blessed by an angel. The doll was taken home to Kalupapi village by the man and cared for, and pictures of the doll – which the locals had adorned with a hijab – emerged online with claims that it was a bidadari or an angel.
The discovery came a day after the full solar eclipse swept across the area, which led superstitious locals to believe the two events were linked.
Soon after, word spread about how the doll was found stranded and crying, along with other supernatural stories linked with its discovery. Alarmed by the spreading rumours, police conducted an investigation which led to the revelation that the doll was in fact a sex toy.
Heru Pramukarno, a local police chief, broke the news and told the media, “It was checked by one of our team. It was a sex toy.”
Pramukarno added that the villagers’ remoteness and lack of access to the Internet greatly contributed to their misconception. “They have no internet; they don’t know what a sex toy is.”
After the investigation, police confiscated the doll and brought it to their station in a bid to stop further false rumours from circulating.