BERLIN, January 19, 2012 (AFP) - Police called out when an alarm went off after hours at a northern German bank found the culprit was -- a small spider.

Having initially found nothing untoward at the bank in Lower Saxony state, officers called the bank's caretaker to be on the safe side and went inside to investigate, they said Thursday.

There, they discovered the eight-legged creature had crawled on to a motion sensor, setting off the bank's alarm system.

But they took it in good humour.

"After thorough questioning the spider was told to move on. It'll have to look now for a new home," a police statement joked.