Heavenly body: Villagers mistake sex toy for ‘angel’

Villagers in Indonesia thought they had been blessed with a gift from heaven after this ‘angel’ fell from the sky.

When a local known as Pardin found the doll off the remote Banggai islands near Sulawesi, he was so amazed he took it home.

There, his mother treated it like a real human, dressing it in different clothes every day, as rumours in the local area reportedly began to spread.

The ‘angel’ was stuffed with fabric and seated on a chair where she could receive callers and even enjoyed a trip on the ocean with her fisherman saviours.

Because the doll was found days after a solar eclipse — which are thought to be spiritual in the largely Muslim country — people began to believe something special had happened.

However, when police turned up to investigate, they soon poured cold water on the theory.

“When our officers arrived they saw that the ‘fallen angel’ was just a doll, it was a sex toy,” local police chief Heru Pramukarno told AFP. “We were hearing many stories, such as that the ‘fallen angel’ was crying when she was discovered.”

Pramukarno added that the village’s remoteness helped cause the confusion.

“They have no internet, they don’t know what a sex toy is,” he said. The police later confiscated the doll.

Indonesian news portal Detik said photos of the doll dressed demurely and wearing a hijab spread on social media. Rumours then started to spread that it was a “bidadari” along with unverified stories about how it was found “stranded and crying”, prompting the police investigation.

Many across Indonesia continue to hold strong beliefs in the supernatural, including the existence of “bidadari”, which is a type of angel or spirit.