‘Human skin’ teddy bear sparks panic at California bus stop, ends in arrest. It was a prank gone wrong
On an ordinary day, a grotesque looking teddy bear appeared at a bus stop placed neatly on the pavement, looking as though it had been stitched together with bloody human skin.
human flesh teddy bear Imagine waking up to the kind of headline you’d expect from a gruesome true-crime documentary – a teddy bear made of human flesh left at a gas station. For residents of Victorville in California’s San Bernardino County, this nightmare scenario felt all too real until authorities discovered it was a prank gone disturbingly wrong.
The incident unfolded in the Mojave Desert city near a gas station ironically that happens to fall roughly midway between downtown Los Angeles and the Nevada state line. On an ordinary day, a grotesque looking teddy bear appeared at a bus stop placed neatly on the pavement, looking as though it had been stitched together with bloody human skin.
Alarmed by the sight, both a customer and an employee at the station called the local police. Officers called in a deputy coroner to determine if it contained real human remains. “Our investigation found these dolls being sold on a website with the claim that the dolls are ‘made of human skin,’” the coroner said. Forensic experts also confirmed that the bear was not made of human tissue. It was instead a highly realistic latex creation sold online as horror art.
Authorities soon identified the person behind the alarming display.
Hector Corona Villanueva, a resident of Victorville had allegedly bought the teddy bear from an online shop and deliberately placed it at the gas station for a prank.
He did not inform authorities about the stunt himself, and was booked by the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department on Monday.
As the incident unfolded and the pictures of the bear started making rounds on the news, Robert Kelly, founder of Dark Seed Creations, a company that specialises in hyper-realistic horror props took credit for the creation. Kelly confirmed to NBC News that he had crafted the bear using latex live castings of real human models. When he saw photos of the Victorville bear circulating online, he instantly recognised it as one of his own.
“I made the order, put it in a box, sent it out, and according to tracking, it was delivered to Victorville on the 12th,” Kelly told NBC News.
While the object was ultimately harmless, local officials criticised the prank for unnecessarily using up emergency resources. “Incidents such as this take up valuable emergency resources and put the public at risk, possibly delaying response time to legitimate calls for service,” the sheriff’s department said in a statement.
Share
