A discarded vibrator at Queensland's Mackay airport caused pandemonium after cleaners noticed a rubbish bin humming in a suspicious manner, the Herald Sun reports.

Cafeteria manager Lynne Bryant said: "It was rather disconcerting when the rubbish bin started humming furiously. We called security and next minute everybody was being evacuated while they checked it out."

It was only after an hour that security declared the offending item nothing more than a "adult novelty device". It is not reported whether the authorities attempted to apprehend the person responsible for wreaking havoc with passengers' schedules. Presumably, they simply had to look for a smiling and chilled-looking woman among the screaming, terrorised travellers. ®

Bootnote

Thanks to all those readers who wrote to point out that we were wrong to assume that the miscreant who discarded this vibrating fun stick was a woman. Mike Robinson notes:

FYI: The vibrator was discarded by a bloke who subsequently revealed (correct terminology?) himself to police on the scene at the airport.

Best part of the drama was watching a member of the Queensland police force describe the incident, and the discarded device, on the evening news.

We gather that the poor guy chucked the vibrator because he realised it would not get past security. Which is the right thing to do, of course - unless it's going to go off in a rubbish bin.

We apologise unreservedly for assuming that it is only women who require the services of "adult novelty devices", and consider ourselves duly educated.

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