‘A small child’ was reeled in by Louisiana angler, cops say. It wasn’t what it seemed

An angler reeling in his catch at a Louisiana lake was stunned to see “a small child” on the end of his line, but the very convincing scene was deceiving, according to police.

It happened Sunday, July 21, at Heritage Park in Slidell, and resulted in a dive team visiting the marina, the Slidell Police Department said in a Facebook post.

“A father and his young children were out fishing ... when they hooked onto something very unexpected. As they reeled it in and it began to surface, they noticed what appeared to be a small child on the other end of their line,” police said.

“A 911 call was quickly placed, and as the first officer arrived on the scene, the line snapped.”

Divers quickly located the “small child” in the water and discovered “it wasn’t a real child.”

“In fact, it was a replica of a small child used for dive training. This training tool was found to have been lost during a training event several weeks prior by a non-profit company,” police reported.

“We are grateful for this outcome, but we’d be lying if we said it didn’t initially scare us!”

A photo shared by the department shows the dummy was even dressed like a child, in black shorts and a T-shirt that had begun to come apart.

The fate of the dummy was not revealed.

Slidell is about a 30-mile drive northeast from New Orleans.