KILL DEVIL HILLS, N.C. (WAVY) — Police in Kitty Hawk are asking for help after someone left a suspicious device in front of someone’s home, and it was caught on camera. 

In the video, you can see someone leaving something by the fence before running away into oncoming traffic — almost getting hit by a car. It happened around 9:45 p.m. Sunday. 

Police say it was a military ammunition can, and it had the names of police officers and the town’s chief of police written on the side, along with vulgar language and pictures. They say it also emitted very loud siren sounds when activated. 

Sergeant Brian Strickland says they haven’t been able to make any connection between the victim who lives where the device was planted, and their department, but it went too far to be a prank. 

“The way it was made up with the words that were on it, the detail that went into it to make the device, that’s something you want to take into account, as opposed to somebody taking a bag of poo on a porch and lighting it on fire,” Strickland said.

Rachel Bradley lives near where the device was found, and while she thinks it could’ve been a prank, she hopes it’s taken seriously.

“We’re real neighborly around here, we all kind of look out for each other and it’s bad to see things like that going on in your neighborhood, so I hope whoever it is does get caught and doesn’t get just a slap on the wrist,” Bradley said.

Strickland says planting a hoax bomb like this, prank or not, is a felony in North Carolina and they’ll press charges as such if the suspect is found.

“Whatever this is we don’t want it to escalate to the next level you know, now it was a car alarm hooked to a battery, the next time we don’t want it to be a battery hooked to an explosive device, that’s our biggest thing,” Strickland explained.

The FBI and North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation were both brought in to investigate, but the device was deemed not explosive. 

However, authorities are still looking to find the person who left it. If you know anything that can help, call Kitty Hawk police at 252-261-3895