A man in Italy has been charged with fraud after he was caught wearing a fake arm to avoid getting vaccinated against COVID-19.
Doctors at a clinic in Biella, northern Italy, reported the man to the police after discovering his fake appendage, the Daily Mail reports.
Health officials believe the man, who is staunchly opposed to vaccination, booked the appointment in a bid to obtain a "green pass", a document which allows people to go to work, use public transport and enjoy leisure activities in Italy.
To get a pass in the country, people either have to be vaccinated or had a previous infection within the last six months.
The medical staff at the clinic became suspicious when they realised the texture of the man's arm did not resemble a normal limb, despite the realistic skin colour.
According to local media, the man attempted to persuade the doctor to inject a dose of the vaccine into the silicone arm even after they realised it was fake.
"I felt offended as a professional," Filippa Bua told Italian newspaper La Repubblica.
"The colour of the arm made me suspicious and so I asked the man to uncover the rest of his left arm. It was well made but it wasn't the same colour."
The man reportedly asked the doctor: "Would you have imagined that I'd have such a physique?"
Bua told daily newspaper La Stampa she could not see veins in his arm and initially believed it may have been an artificial limb.
"At first I thought I made a mistake - that it was a patient with an artificial arm."
Health officials are praising the staffers for foiling the 50-year-old's plans.
"The promptness and skill of the health worker ruined the plans of this person, who will now have to respond to the judiciary," Alberto Cirio, the president of Piedmont, said in a joint statement with Luigi Icardi, the regional health councillor.
Although Cirio and Icardi said the case "borders on the ridiculous", they added that the attempt to illegitimately obtain a green pass was of "enormous gravity".
"It is unacceptable in the face of the sacrifice that the pandemic is making the whole community pay for," they said.
La Repubblica suggested that the incident may not be a one-off, citing a recent post on social media that could have been written by the 50-year-old.
The Twitter post featured a silicone male chest half-body suit, complete with fake arms and neck, that was on sale on Amazon for €488 (NZD$819).
Alongside the image was the caption: "If I go with this, will they notice? Maybe beneath the silicone I'll even put on some extra clothes to avoid the needle reaching my real arm."
