COIMBATORE: Police were forced to intervene after shoppers and passers-by at Raja Street, hindered the movement of traffic for around 15 minutes, after they found what they believed to be gold nuggets, in front of a diamond jewellery store on Friday.
Even as more people joined the queue of shoppers in picking up the "gold" from the street, traffic came to a grinding halt as motorists also stopped their vehicles by the side of the road and began collecting the spurious bounty.
The Variety Hall Road Police were alerted to the bizarre scene. They rushed to the spot and surveyed the strewn "gold" and learned quickly that they were just plastic beads covered with gold paint. Police said, some makers of costume jewellery had bought the beads and when they were returning, one of the bags fell from the motorcycle and spattered across the road. After convincing the public that the gold was in fact beads, the police got them to disperse.