Say Cheese! Czech Grocery Snatches U.S. Family Photo For Ad

Grocery owner says he thought it was computer generated

A midwestern family's Christmas photo somehow landed in an ad posted on the window of a Prague grocery story, and the Missouri brood found out about it when an old friend spied it and did a double take.

Danielle Smith, 36, called the fate of her family's picture, "Interesting. Bizarre. Flattering, I suppose.  But quite creepy,"  the Associated Press reports.

Smith got the news from a college buddy who did a double take when he drove past Grazie, a European food store in the Czech Republic, and saw a life-sized Smith with her husband and two blond kiddies in an enormous advertisement.

According to the Guardian, the pal e-mailed a copy of the ad to Smith, including a translation of the slogan below the photo: "We will prepare and deliver your request in two business days."

The photo, snapped for the holidays, shows the family of four in coordinated colors. Smith e-mailed it to some friends and posted it on her blog, Extraordinary Mommy, which could be how it made its way to Czech grocer Mario Bertuccio.

Bertuccio says he thought it was computer generated, but now that he knows otherwise, he is taking it down and seeking to make amends.

"We'll be happy to write an e-mail with our apology," the grocery owner said, adding that he would send a bottle of wine if the Smiths lived closer.

If nothing else, the experience is bringing new friends into Smith's life.  Extraordinary Mommy has gotten over 180,000 hits since she first blogged about the bizarre experience.

"You see," she said in her most recent blog post,  "since my family was unwittingly made the poster-children for a local grocery store I’ve been getting [web] visits from all over the world."

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