A mum has spoken of her horror after an expensive mermaid doll she bought for her daughter turned out to be packed full of drugs.
Elizabeth Faidley forked out $500 for the 'hand-made' Christmas present for her little girl, Ellie, back in 2015.
But aside from its fairly creepy appearance - fuzzy green hair and scaly skin - Pearl the mer-baby was hiding a much more sinister secret: the doll's head was filled with cocaine.
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Every year, Elizabeth shares the bizarre story of how she became embroiled in a major drugs investigation, and this year was no different.
Sharing photos of the doll on social media, she explained how Ellie had always wanted a mermaid baby but that she never warmed to Pearl.
She wrote: "I sat [Ellie] down and she stared at the doll and said, 'I wanted a pretty one.' And I said, 'It's not as much what's on the outside as what's on the inside.'
"And then we had a whole discussion - it was a learning moment - and I was like, 'You're going to be able to love Pearl because she's soft.' I cuddled her and wrapped her in a special blanket that had her name on it, and she was like, 'I'm never touching that doll. There's things messed up on that doll, Mom.'"
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In a bid to win over her disappointed daughter, Elizabeth wrapped it up in a nice blanket and dyed its hair, but Ellie was having none of it.
Eventually, she found a doll hospital that would fix her weird doll. However, upon closer inspection of the doll, the firm came across the stash of class-A gear.
And shortly after sending the doll off to the doll hospital, Elizabeth received a phone call.
She said: "It was a detective from the Secaucus Police Department. The detective tells me that the Germans called the the police down to the doll hospital that morning.
"When they removed Pearl's head to repaint her offensive skin, they found two ounces of COCAINE. STUFFED IN HER HEAD."
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After some effort, the detective believed Elizabeth's story that she had no idea the drugs had been hidden inside the doll.
Her post continued: "The detective then said, 'You spent money on this doll? Have you ever heard of Ariel? She is a pretty mermaid. You can buy her at any Disney store.'"
She was then told that she was no longer a suspect, however, Pearl was to remain in the hands of the Drug Enforcement Agency as evidence - which we don't think anyone was that sad about.
Elizabeth had bought the drug doll from an Etsy shop based in Alabama, which turned out to be a front for a drug operation.
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Speaking to Today, the confused mum said: "We got the wrong head. This was my first time in any drug espionage situation - I'm a violin teacher - but I guess they were selling these terrible, ugly mermaids to idiots like me who spend $500 on Etsy because they're like, 'No one's going to buy these, but it looks legitimate.'
"They had a fake store but then I popped in like, 'Here's your money! Send me a mer-doll!' So then they accidentally sent me a head filled with cocaine.
"The detective was like, 'Your help in this sting is so appreciated. We've already got the person in Alabama.' I guess they were trying to get her to flip on her boss.
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"That's all I know. I pushed him for more, because obviously I wanted to know, but he said the rest was 'need to know'."
But even after her name was cleared, Elizabeth called the hospital that repaired little Pearl to get her money back. However, it wasn't easy.
"They refused to speak to me after Pearl was taken away because they thought the drugs were mine, so I literally had to call and be like, 'THE DRUGS AREN'T MINE!' until they would talk to me."
Eventually, she got a refund.
And Ellie, now 10, still remembers the traumatic episode. Her mum added: "She still thinks I should not have bought Pearl and she doesn't know what was wrong with me. She will attest to Pearl's gross hideousness and the fact that she knew there was something lingering inside that was not right. We just didn't know it was cocaine."
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