Fairground prizes are ‘shocking’

19 May 2005

AMSTERDAM — People who won pens that can deliver an electric shock at a fairground in Tiel are actually in possession of a banned weapon, Dutch police have revealed.

Police only became aware the pens were being distributed in recent days when a member of the public took one to a local police station.

The pens were intended as a prize at the fair, but are in fact illegal under the Dutch weapons and munitions act.

A police spokesperson said people who received one of these pens can surrender it at a police station without risk of prosecution. Anyone who fails to hand one of the pens in and is caught with it later risks receiving a summons.

The pen looks like a thick, but otherwise normal ball-point. It emits an electrical charge when a button at the back is pushed.

The police say this is the first time this sort of novelty pen has surfaced at fairgrounds in the Netherlands.

The actions of the fairground owner are now under investigation by the police in North Brabant where the man lives.

Police plan to confiscate all the shock pens still in his possession.

[Copyright Expatica News + ANP 2005]

Subject: Dutch news