Hello, Governor! How did a red, British phone booth end up on a Raleigh street corner?

It appeared like a prince waving from the royal balcony — a strange, bright red invader as foreign as a crumpet on an IHOP menu.

For days, West Raleigh neighbors couldn’t stop guessing about the British phone booth that suddenly appeared on a Powell Street corner, only a block from The Goat Bar and its half-priced liquor specials.

But this oddity’s explanation, while a very good story, comes thanks to local eccentric Tony Sneberg, who’d long hoped to own one and was willing to go to extreme lengths.

“He came to me about 9 p.m. and said, “I have a really great opportunity,” said his girlfriend, Katie Paul. “But I have to leave right now.”

“What is this opportunity?” she asked.

“It’s a surprise.”

“Where is this opportunity?”

“Swisher, Iowa.”

Red treasure on a trailer

It turns out this phone booth was immediately available on very short terms thanks to an Iowa marriage that was quickly dissolving and property being quickly and even somewhat spitefully divided.

So after 34 hours of driving, Sneberg returned with his red treasure on a trailer — a crown emblem showing proudly at the top.

“I’m just glad it wasn’t a double-decker bus,” Paul joked.

A landscaper, Sneberg isn’t British himself or obsessed with the royal family. He grew up in the Czech Republic, where one is more apt to come across European-style forms of communication.

He has all the glass panes ready to install, and he’ll have it repainted with the crown showing gold. They’ll install a cheap phone, or maybe even better, arrange for an emergency line to be connected for anyone to use.

Meanwhile, it’s a happy addition, a welcome cousin from overseas.

“I tried not to be mad about it,” said Paul. “He was gone 34 hours, but it’s so cute, who cares?”