Germany bomb alert leads police to big zucchini

A worried resident in Germany alerted police to what he thought was a World War II bomb in his garden. Officers found ... a particularly large zucchini.

Police were summoned to the scene in Bretten, near the southwestern city of Karlsruhe, on Thursday morning by a worried 81-year-old man.

They said in a statement today that officers determined "the object, which really did look very like a bomb" was actually a 40-centimeter (nearly 16-inch) zucchini.

The offending vegetable, which was very dark in color, weighed about five kilograms (11 pounds). Police believe someone threw it over a hedge into the garden.
 

Unexploded wartime bombs are unearthed frequently during construction work in Germany, often forcing authorities to evacuate residents while they are defused.