Porcupines in box sparked bomb scare

A cardboard box abandoned near the house of a politician in Depok, West Java, Indonesia, sparked a bomb scare on Wednesday but police who rushed to the scene found the suspicious package contained only two porcupines.

An eyewitness, Samsuri, who said he was the first to notice the package lying in front of his house at 6:10am on Wednesday, alerted neighborhood security guards, who then summoned the police. The police dispatched the bomb squad from the nearby Kelapa Dua Mobile Brigade (Brimob) headquarters to the scene.

A notice attached to the box read, “Sorry to trouble you but could you please take the best care of what is inside this box because the owner already has too many of them. Thank you.” The writer gave his name as Alex Tutuarima. An X-ray examination showed the package contained no explosives.

Wary onlookers, with the recent killing of six terror suspects in nearby Tangerang still fresh in their minds, sighed in relief when a police officer announced the contents of the package. “When we opened it, we found two white porcupines,” said Sec. Insp. Paulus Silabok who led the bomb squad team. He said the police would seek the person who placed the box on the road.