Moldovan police investigate a drone that a resident thought was a toy and took home

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CHISINAU, Moldova (AP) — Police in Moldova deployed bomb disposal experts Wednesday to a community miles from the Ukrainian border after a resident mistook a grounded drone for “a toy” and took it home.

When police arrived in Pepeni in Singerei district, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) north of the capital, Chisinau, they discovered that the drone found four days earlier had already been stripped of its parts.

Police said the drone did not contain explosives or pose a danger, and urged the public to “not touch or attempt to transport fallen drones or similar objects.”

Authorities did not say where the drone came from. They said it was a Gerbera-type drone typically used for improvised attacks or observation. Russia has used those in Ukraine.

Police had been tipped off by Pepeni’s mayor. Video footage posted by city hall on social media showed the drone atop a trailer hooked to a small tractor commonly used in rural settlements.

“A citizen thought it was a toy … and brought it into the locality of Pepeni,” Mayor Oleg Cernei says in the video. “As soon as it appeared within the boundaries of the commune, I identified the person and informed the state institutions.”

The incident is the latest in a string of airspace breaches and drone discoveries on Moldovan territory since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Last week, Moldova’s airspace was breached multiple times by unmanned aerial vehicles during Russian attacks on Ukraine. A drone was found perched on the roof of a house in a village in Floresti district.

The Russian ambassador was summoned to the foreign ministry over those incidents.