A group of villagers in Indonesia believed they had laid their hands on a fallen angel when an inflatable sex toy washed ashore two months ago. Sensational media reports of a beautiful angel having been rescued and heavenly offerings being made to her alongside fears of a potential social unrest led to a police investigation, which eventually punctured the fast-growing theories of a divine intervention.
“When our officers arrived they saw that the 'fallen angel' was just a doll, it was a sex toy,” said local police chief Heru Pramukarno earlier this month.
A villager, Pardin, who like other Indonesians identifies with his first name only, said he found the doll while he was out fishing at the isolated Banggai islands off Sulawesi in Central Indonesia. Pardin’s finding came in March, only a day after his village witnessed a solar eclipse, an experience considered deeply spiritual by the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country. The timing of both events is what caused superstitious locals to link the two, said police officials.
Upon his discovery, Pardin carried the partially inflated doll back home in Kalupapi, where every villager treated it with great reverence. Pardin’s mother got the doll a fresh change of clothes along with a new headscarf, which she had the doll wear everyday. It was even taken on a boat trip by locals, who offered it a chair to sit on.
According to the police, investigation started after local authorities expressed concern over the growing excitement of this “fallen angel”.
“We were hearing many stories, such as that the 'fallen angel' was crying when she was discovered,” Pramukarno said. “They have no Internet, they don't know what a sex toy is.”
Once investigation was completed, officials confiscated the doll and took it back to the local police station, a decision intended to stop the spreading of false rumours.
This is not the first time that a sex toy has been misunderstood as something else all together. In 2012 for instance, a Chinese television station had reported on an unusual mushroom with two heads, only for audiences to point out later that the object in question was in fact a sex toy used by men.
Photo Credits: Daily Mail, UK
