A suspected explosive device that shut down a Macon street early Tuesday was the apparent work of a prankster.

Macon police and firefighters answered a 4:31 a.m. call about a person down in the middle of Washington Avenue, but found a mannequin sitting on the double yellow line just behind the fenced playground of St. Joseph’s Catholic School.

“It was wearing a yellow shirt and a hockey mask, and was propped up in the road,” said Jami Gaudet, spokeswoman for the Macon Police Department. “Officers thought it could possibly have been an improvised explosive device. They didn’t know what they were dealing with.”

They called the bomb unit, which headed to the 900 block of Washington Avenue to check it out, Gaudet said. Police blocked the road from Spring Street to the parking lot of the Washington Avenue Presbyterian Church.

Bomb squad officers determined it posed no threat. On the scene, some who were about a half-block away from the dummy said they understood there were wires connected to it, but Gaudet said there is no mention of that in the report.

Officers reopened the street about 5:30 a.m.

To contact writer Liz Fabian, call 744-4303.