Floating Mannequins Mistaken For Bodies In Stockton
STOCKTON (CBS13) — A highway scare caught Stockton drivers by surprise on their Monday morning commute.
CHP Stockton said they got a 911 call about a body floating in water near highway 99 and Arch Road. And when officers arrived on the scene they found several body parts belonging to mannequins.
The bizarre find has many saying "only in Stockton."
"I'd freak out, you know. And that'd be the first thing I do is actually call 911," said Chris Akers.
What looked like a body and several legs floating in the water, was thankfully just plastic.
"It's kind of scary. You never know what that is, it could be real it could be fake," said Daniel Martinez.
CHP got the 911 call around 8 a.m. Monday morning. A trucker had spotted the mannequin carnage.
"The first visual is 'oh my gosh' and then you kind of go wait a second there's a leg here, a leg there," Officer Ruben Jones with CHP.
Jones said the incident was taken very seriously. Homicides in Stockton have surged in the last year; however, officers quickly realized real humans were not involved.
"At this point, I see that as a green light to have a little fun and be a little creative on social media," Jones said.
He jokingly posted about the myth of the Stockton Kracken getting his revenge on Valentine's Day, hoping followers would get the same laugh police did.
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"Sometimes we see the worst scenarios in different situations, but this one we got a good laugh out of it and a good chuckle," Jones said.
Caltrans removed the mannequins quickly to prevent further 911 calls. CHP said the area they were found in is a known dumping grounds and it would be fruitless to try and find who left this unusual surprise.
"Without any cameras in the area it would be almost impossible, so we just chalk it up to one of those things where you go only in Stockton," Jones said.
And this isn't the first time. Last September, Stockton police responded to a call about a body at the waterfront. That too was just a mannequin.
