By AP/KWMU
Wright City, MO – It was a Winnie-the-Pooh telephone that caused the post office in Wright City, Mo. to be evacuated Thursday.
A man who had ordered the phone online went to pick it up yesterday but he heard it ticking, not ringing. The phone was somehow activated during shipping, and when this phone rings, Winnie the Pooh's head spins.
The ticking noise that caused the evacuation turned out to be Pooh's head hitting the side of the box.
Police and members of the bomb squad were called about 6:45 a.m. when the man retrieving the package noticed the unexpected sound.
"It was pretty distinctly ticking," Police Chief Don Wickenhauser said. "And he didn't want to pick it up." When authorities contacted the sender, he verified that it was nothing sinister.
A Highway Patrol spokeswoman said authorities were both amused and relieved when they opened the package. "I guess the moral of the story is before you send electronics, take the batteries out," she said.