A strange incident happened off the coast of Hachinohe in northeastern Japan when emergency services were called to rescue what looked like a drowning woman. When they arrived, they found out it was actually a thrown away life-size sex doll. The weird event took place in June 2021 and got a lot of attention after being shared on social media by people who saw it happen. YouTuber Tanaka Natsuki was filming a fishing video in the area when she first saw what she thought was a dead body floating in the water. Someone passing by had already called the police, which brought out a full emergency response. Many fire and rescue teams, police officers, and an ambulance showed up at the scene, ready to save what they believed was a person in trouble. As rescue teams worked to pull the figure from the water while a crowd watched, they soon figured out they were actually trying to save a sex doll and not a real person. The doll was floating upside down in the water, which made it hard to tell what it really was from far away. Emergency workers successfully pulled the adult toy from the ocean and got rid of it the right way, though the incident had already gotten a lot of attention from local people and online viewers. Emergency services respond to an unusual case Tanaka shared what happened on Twitter, saying that while filming her fishing video, she thought a dead body had washed up but it turned out to be what people in Japan commonly call a Dutch Wife. She added that someone got confused about what it was and called the police, which brought out a big emergency response. The YouTuber, who has more than 272,000 subscribers and usually makes videos about hot spring visits, joked about congratulating the crew on the safe rescue even though it was such an unusual situation. 八戸沖粗大ゴミ不法投棄事件ご苦労様です pic.twitter.com/YnoVTECX3P— PowerSportsVoW (@VoW_wheeeeeeeee) June 18, 2021 Another person at the scene, Twitter user PowerSportsVoW, called the incident illegal dumping of oversized garbage and thanked the police for their work in cleaning up the waters. Japan has strict rules about how to throw away oversized items, which might explain why the doll ended up in the ocean instead of being thrown away the proper way through official channels. This incident is not the first time a sex doll has been confused for a real human body. Similar things have happened in other countries, including a 2020 incident in Allenhurst, Georgia, where police officers covered what they thought was a body on railway tracks with a sheet before finding out it was a doll. In 2018, another sex doll was mistaken for a body in Colerian Township, Ohio. Cases of mistaken identity have led to unusual situations with emergency workers before, though this particular incident stands out because of how weird it was. In Japan, around 2,000 sex dolls are sold every year, with prices starting from $6,000. These dolls can come with things like fingers that move, heads that come off, and other parts you can change. For owners who feel too shy about throwing away their dolls on regular trash collection days, Japanese companies offer special funeral services. These ceremonies include putting the dolls in coffins, wrapping them in burial clothes, and decorating them with flowers, with prices going from $452 to $814 depending on what service you pick. The fact that such services exist shows the unusual cultural phenomenon around these products in Japan.