A "prop" doll apparently made to resemble a dead infant was discovered in a Queens park on Tuesday, fooling police officers and other emergency personnel for upwards of three hours, according to authorities.
Cops who were called to Crocheron Park in Bayside at around 7:30 a.m. this morning initially reported finding an infant—"light-skinned, purple and blue in color, wearing only a diaper"—lying face down in the grass. Detectives descended on the scene, erecting a full-scale crime scene, and an NYPD spokesperson told Gothamist that a medical investigator pronounced the "baby" dead.
It wasn't until around 11 a.m. that police discovered the macabre figure was not a person at all, but merely a hyperrealistic doll made to look like a bruised and decomposing child. In what is hopefully not a gritty promotion for the new zombie prequel show, the Daily News reports that the words “The Crawling Dead” had been scrawled on the figure's T-shirt.
It's unclear exactly how the doll was erroneously declared to be a deceased human. It's also unclear, for now, how a grotesque likeness of a dead child found its way into a Queens park across the street from a school. Perhaps dead baby jokes are making a comeback?
A spokesperson for the police department tells Gothamist the matter is under investigation—we'll update as we learn more.
