COLOGNE — German police have launched an investigation into two teenagers accused of controlling a humanoid robot that allegedly groped a 16-year-old girl in the western German city of Cologne.The robot harassed the teenager by touching her buttocks before she screamed and moved away, police said in a statement. The teenager was standing outside a fast-food restaurant with two friends on Saturday night when the red and gold robot approached her from behind, according to the statement.Cologne police have confiscated the robot and are now investigating the incident on suspicion of sexual harassment.North Rhine Westphalia Police said the robot’s 16-year-old owner and his companion, 19, are believed to have streamed the incident live on social media and commented on it.Emergency services were alerted, and the teenage boy and the man now under investigation with him were found a block away a short time later. The robot was discovered in the back of a car, where the boy had placed it, police said.Along with the robot, police seized two mobile phones belonging to the suspects. They are trying to determine whether someone was deliberately controlling the robot’s movements at the time of the incident.In a follow-up post on Facebook, police warned some social media comments on the case “can be a crossing of the line and in the worst case, a criminal offense”.
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