Early Tuesday morning, the police of Queens, New York got a disturbing call. CNN states, “Authorities rushed to Crocheron Park in the Bayside neighborhood of Queens just before 8 a.m. after a woman out for a run reported seeing a “baby” lying face-down in the grass…Police initially reported the child was about three months old and had been pronounced dead at the scene due to an undetermined cause.”

Then, the medical examiner at the site then saw an interesting fact that changed the whole investigation. He noticed the baby was wearing a t-shirt that read “The Crawling Dead” on it. This was not originally visible due to the fact the baby was originally on its stomach. This gave the examiner a slight clue that the baby might not be a human baby, it was a doll that was made to look as though it has decaying flesh.

Even though this was just as doll made to look as though it had been dead for a while, the enforcement that was called to action responded to it as though it was a real situation. CNN states, “At one point, another neighbor said as many as 200 officers were canvassing the park looking for evidence.”

To me, this is reassuring due to the fact that it was impossible to tell if the child was a doll or not until the medical examiner discovered the t-shirt that gave away the fact the baby was in fact a doll. I, for one, am thankful that law enforcement is treating calls like this as though they are real situations, whether it ended up to be a prank call or a prop. If it was the worst case scenario and it was an actual child, I would hope they would do everything they could to track down the cause of death.

What I have yet to understand is why this doll was colored to look as though it was dead and why it was face-down in the middle of a sidewalk. Was this doll made for some kind of abstract play or a horror movie made by someone who is extremely good at using makeup to look like real wounds? Whatever it is, I’m afraid to say, it is likely the doll will not be returned to its owners. This was too life-like for even the medical examiner to tell if it was a real case until real investigating had begun.

In Ames even, we had something similar to this. In 2013, around Parks Library, a student called in a suspicious item. “It was a cylindrical item about the size of a water bottle in a grayish-greenish sock. Officers took a look at it. They decided to follow pretty cautious federal guidelines like set up a perimeter, call for assistance.” states Darin Van Ryswyk, investigations captain for ISU Police. Fire marshals came to the scene and were worried it could possibly be an explosive. When this was stated, all buildings around the area were evacuated. Later that day, “ISU Police confirmed the object was not explosive and was in fact a hollow piece of Styrofoam encased in a sock.” 

It was hard for the organization who left the object on campus to determine how others may interpret their object. But leaving something like that around campus is not a smart idea. It is better to pick up after yourself than risk someone interpreting your trash as something dangerous.

There are too many things on the internet today that make young adults feel more immune to wounds, blood and other things that would be seen in a horror film. I, for one, am perfectly ok with watching the actors in “The Nightmare on Elm Street” or “Annabelle” get their arms/head/legs cut off with minimal squealing. I am even fine with seeing and interacting with the dead zombies and cut up creatures that wander Worlds of Fun during Halloween Haunt. However, seeing others get hurt in real life is a whole different ball game when it comes to the mental toll the victim and the viewer receives. Seeing a person get hurt in a real way in front of you will definitely cause you to feel less immune.

People should definitely not be making dead baby dolls and leaving them around the burrows for others to find and believe to be real.