Item in Post Office Scare Turns Out to Be a Delicacy

Six were hospitalized in Germany over stinky durian fruit
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 22, 2020 1:27 PM CDT
Item in Post Office Scare Turns Out to Be a Delicacy
File photo of a cut of durian fruit in in Bentong, Malaysia.   (AP Photo/Sadiq Asyraf, File)

The package smelled so bad that postal workers thought it might be a chemical weapon. A full complement of police and medical units descended on the facility in Schweinfurt, Germany, where a dozen workers needed medical care, reports CNN. Six of them ended up in the hospital. But when authorities finally investigated the package, they realized it wasn't a bomb in the traditional sense: Inside were four infamously smelly durian fruits.

It seems their "stinking gases" sickened the workers, per the Times of London. The newspaper likens the odor to "sewage or sweaty gym kit." CNN opts for "rotten food or dirty socks," and MBS.News settles for the nickname of "vomit fruit." In fairness to the durian, advocates say it tastes much better than it smells. (This isn't the first time that durian has caused the evacuation of a building.)

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