Inventor trying to save the world from environmental destruction sparked bomb scare

Odds and Sods

A green-minded Swedish inventor who accidentally triggered neighboring Denmark's terror police has apologized for scaring people with his wire-laced car, saying his intention was only to save the world from "environmental destruction". Dan Zethraeus, who works as a television director for Swedish public broadcaster Sveriges Television (SVT), had driven over to Denmark and was making his way back to his car on Tuesday when he encountered police barricades.

Unaware to what could have caused the scrum, he retreated to a nearby cafe. When his phone rang, it was a Swedish reporter asking why his car was at the center of a large-scale terrorism alert operation in Copenhagen, as wires snaking up from under the chassis over the door had set off their suspicions. "I rushed off to the police and explained that it was an invention," Zethraeus said. "The bomb squad smiled a bit and weren't particularly upset, but the police were quite tense."

He noted that he had driven his car around with the odd contraption for about a month back home in Sweden, without causing any misunderstandings with law enforcement. "It's an invention and not meant to be perceived as a terror threat," Zethraeus said of his invention, an environmental system which he had hoped to patent in the not-too.distant future. "But I guess that's gone up in smoke, as there's been so much attention due to this."

And while the Swedish inventor said he was sincerely sorry for scaring the Danes, he also said he wished they'd run his license plates through the register and called him first so he could explain. "It wouldn't have taken more than a few minutes in such an important case," he said. "I'm sorry that people were frightened, that's not what I wanted, I just wanted to save the world from environmental destruction."

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