Staff at a department store in the German city of Kaiserslautern called detectives after an angry customer tried to return a computer stuffed with potatoes to the shop twice on the same day.
The man berated sales assistants in the store, complaining that the computer he had bought only hours before did not work, according to police reports.
The store's staff opened the machine and discovered it was not functioning because its working parts had been replaced with small potatoes. The bemused shop assistants gave the man a new computer free of charge.
But bemusement turned to suspicion when the shopper returned a short while later with another computer - again potato-filled.
Police were called and the man was arrested.
A spokesman said: "The second time he said he didn't need a computer any more and asked for his money back in cash." Roman Zukoan, a computer technician who works in the Nexos computer shop, also in Kaiserslautern, said: "It is hard to imagine how the potatoes could get into a computer's casing.
"When computers leave the factory they are packed in plastic to prevent damage from condensation.
"If they are running for a long time they get hot and in theory it would be possible to cook a potato in a computer, but who would try that?"
"If they are running for a long time they get hot and in theory it would be possible to cook a potato in a computer, but who would try that?"
Fozzer?
