Terrifying teddy bear feared to be wrapped in human flesh left at petrol station

Daily Mirror

2 days ago

Shocked passers-by found the fearfully realistic horror toy abandoned outside a petrol station in San Bernardino County, California and called police, who mounted a huge emergency response
The discovery of a grisly teddy bear made of 'human skin' led to the arrest of a man in San Bernardino County, California yesterday. The chillingly-realistic serial killer -themed toy was left outside a petrol station on Bear Valley Road, Victorville, leading to multiple reports to the local police from concerned passers-by,
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Officers arrived and taped off the apparent ' crime scene ' before realising that the disturbing discovery was, in fact, made of latex.
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23-year-old Corona Villanueva, who is believed to have bought the item from horror movie prop-makers Dark Seed Creations was arrested, and will be booked on charges of 'causing the report of an emergency while knowing it to be false' and 'intentionally and wrongfully planting evidence to falsely present as real.'
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A police spokesperson told reporters: 'Incidents such as this take up valuable emergency resources and put the public at risk, possibly delaying response time to legitimate calls for service. We would like to thank those that reported information that was helpful during the investigation of this case.'
Artist Robert Kelly, who sells the 'Human skin teddy bears' though Etsy, delightedly took to Facebook to tell followers about the incident: 'I cant make this s*** up!,' he wrote. 'One of my skin teddy bears has apparently been involved in a prank that brought police attention! This is f*****g wild!'
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Dozens of fans replied to congratulate him, saying that the stunt would probably earn him plenty of attention – and potentially a lot more sales for the $165.00 (about £122) item. At present, though, the bears are listed as 'sold out' on Robert's Etsy page.
Robert sells a number of other grim-looking items there, including a 'skin vest,' several Halloween masks, and a macabre lampshade tribute to notorious serial killer Ed Gein.
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Robert told People magazine that he had sold one of the bears to a customer in San Bernardino area just last week: "Our work is pretty easily recognisable, and people were sending the articles (about the incident) left and right.
'I looked, and sure enough it was the bear I sent out last week," Mr Kelly told People magazine.
"Every artist wants credit [for] their work, so I said 'I made that', and haven't been able to catch up with messages since."
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He stressed that he had no idea that the buyer would use the item to cause a disturbance: 'I did not have any knowledge of the [buyer's] intentions nor was I involved in a prank on the other side of the nation from me," he wrote on Facebook.
Nevertheless, he added in an interview with ABC News, the artist was relishing his new-found notoriety: "I guess I'd probably be lying if I said I wasn't enjoying it a little bit.
'You know, I'm an independent artist, so you know, I know what starving artist life feels like. So, a little attention is sometimes good regardless of not being able to condone whatever."