Vehicle heists, street racing and security sleeping on the job . . . the Great Teddy Sleepover at the Alexandra and Cromwell libraries was anything but a snoozefest.
After being delivered to the Central Otago District Council libraries on Friday afternoon, the bears, along with various, birds, animals and fantastical creatures, were carefully tagged with their owner’s name and were the picture of childish innocence arrayed behind the libraries’ workstations.
However, once library users and staff left, things began to unravel, as documented overnight on the teddy-cam on the council website.
Things began sedately enough, Constable Ted seemingly overdressed with his police cap firmly in place and whistle at the ready.
Storytime and puzzles, Duplo and colouring kept all creatures great and small occupied for the first few hours.
Sack racing around the shelves in Alexandra seemed harmless enough, but as the evening progressed things got more adventurous in both towns.
It seemed rather more sugar may have been smuggled in than was in the popcorn provided in the blanket fort.
The Alexandra Library bus was appropriated by the bears and they took themselves off for camping trip, concluding with a bonfire and toasting marshmallows over a fire without any adults to help.
Once back in the library, the shenanigans continued with Constable Ted photographed sleeping on the job.
Taking advantage of being unsupervised, the toys in both libraries were seen demonstrating impressive if rather misguided co-operation to photocopy their faces, play computer games and issue books to each other, despite all the grown-up equipment being firmly off limits.
In Cromwell, things went further as animals scaled the shelves and went for a spin on the library walking frame.
Alexandra’s mischievous bunch piled into two book trolleys and raced along the aisles.
A midnight feast was too much for most of them and they finally settled down for a snooze afterwards.
After a breakfast of Milo and Weet-Bix, the toys were reunited with their owners at a teddy bear picnic held in both libraries, where the children were treated to tiny teddy biscuits and stories.
Each toy went home with a series of photographs from the evening’s activities and the photocopy they made during their night-time mischief.
