Burglars who smashed into an art shop in West Sussex in the UK were probably expecting to make off with enough goods to sell off, but they probably weren't expecting to run into a six-foot-tall sex doll waiting on the couch.
According to Metro UK, thieves who broke into Demuz Art were able to make off with £1,000, but the shop owner, Derrick Thompson, thinks they would have been able to take much more if they hadn't been scared off by Shela Louise, the sex doll that he keeps on display in the shop.
Thompson told Metro UK that he bought Shela last year to pose next to the artwork and attract customers. He believes that her like-like qualities probably helped deter the thieves.
The shop's assistant, Paul Smith, agreed.
"Shela wouldn’t have done much when they broke in, but she must have freaked them out and sped up the theft," he told Metro UK.
Thompson also told Metro UK that his girlfriend helped come up with the doll's name (though he prefers to call her a "mannequin girlfriend"). Shela — pronounced Sheila — is an Australian slang term for a woman, and Louise is the name of a woman who Thompson went to college with, and who the doll reminded him of.
Shela even has her own Facebook page and has become so popular that she has amassed 1,700 Facebook friends — which, of course, makes sense when you're the hero of the hour. Indeed, not all heroes wear capes.