MuckFlash

Iowa City, IA -6 March 2009- Staff. A random and bizarre packaging error at a mixed use manufacturing facility in China ended up causing a commotion six months and nearly 7,000 miles later when a middle aged shopper found a prosthetic penis in a box meant for a hand drill.

Shiree Thomson, who had purchased what she thought was a drill at a local Sears outlet as a gift for her husband, didn’t immediately know what to do when she opened the box and found, rather than a normal drill, a solid cylindrical object with evenly spaced plastic ribs. “It wasn’t obvious at first that it wasn’t a drill,” she said, “but after me and my husband took a closer look, we were downright flummoxed when we realized what it was.”

When Mrs. Thomson returned to the store, the sales staff were equally confused. “Nothing like this has ever happened, not in all my years,” said Barry Johnson, the store’s manager. Johnson immediately began to call his suppliers to trace the “drill’s” journey to Iowa City.

Once Johnson began to investigate the source of the box, he eventually found that the industrial complex where the power tools were packed in preparation for shipping used the same facilities as a company which produced sex toys. An explanation, however, was not forthcoming.

“I even reached the manager over there in China, and he as well shrugged his shoulders. ‘It happens’ he said,” marveled Johnson. “Well, from now on, I’ll look twice and any package that come from there, you can be sure.”