Residents in southern Germany thought a late-night prankster was behind constant doorbell-ringing at their apartment complex, but police soon discovered the real culprit was a slug.
The disturbance happened in Schwabach, Bavaria, where families were woken after midnight by a repeated buzzing at their doors. At first, locals assumed they were dealing with a classic “klingelstreich,” or ding-dong-ditch in English, a popular prank where kids ring someone’s doorbell and run away.
The game is usually short-lived. But this time the ringing continued, even after residents called each other to check and eventually decided to involve the police.
Teenage prankster turns out to be slimy slug
Two officers arrived on the scene of the German apartment complex and quickly ruled out any pranksters lurking nearby. Even stranger, a motion detector on the entry system hadn’t been activated, despite the noise continuing without pause. Only after closer inspection did residents and police notice a slime trail across the metal panel, revealing the culprit: a slug that had been sliding up and down the doorbell plate.
One resident told German tabloid Bild that the constant noise had rattled everyone inside the building. “It kept ringing even as we telephoned and despite the fact no one could be seen at the door. We became really uneasy. That’s when we decided to call the police,” she explained.
Authorities later confirmed the animal had been removed without harm. In a lighthearted statement, police said the slug had been “brought down to size, taught about its territory boundaries, and placed on a nearby stretch of grass.”
The bizarre discovery put an end to the mystery, leaving residents relieved that no prankster was roaming their street, just one slug with unfortunate timing.
