PIRMASENS, Germany — A German technology firm’s ill-conceived advertising campaign went horribly wrong, resulting in bomb scares and evacuations across the country.
Convar Deutschland sent out about 40 packages — containing alarm clocks glued to hard drives — to businesses, embassies and a newsroom, the Tagesspiegel newspaper reported Friday.
Attached to the parcels was a note that read, “Your time is running out.”
When the packages arrived at locations in Bonn, Berlin and Frankfurt on Thursday, panic ensued, with the terrified recipients fearing a bomb threat.
Explosives experts were called in to deal with the “time bombs,” and buildings were evacuated.
But further investigation soon revealed that the packages were harmless.
“To raise awareness of the dangers of losing data, we sent a comic-book style alarm clock to symbolize the fact that time is running out on data safety,” the data-recovery company said in a statement. “At absolutely no point did we mean to threaten, or injure, anyone.”
Authorities were deliberating whether to slap Convar Deutschland, which is based in the western city of Pirmasens, with fines for wasting police time.