‘Scared’ police refuse to search traveller site for stolen caravan
POLICE failed to enter a travellers’ camp to look for a stolen caravan because its residents ‘wouldn’t let them on to the site’, according to the victim of the alleged crime. When Helen Cox suggested more police should be sent, the call handler ‘sniggered’ and told her: ‘Where do you think we’ll get a van full of officers from?’
But last week members of the same force, Cambridgeshire, found time to tweet photos of a Halloween stunt at a station, despite Chief Constable Alex Wood complaining that they are under unprecedented pressure.
The constabulary’s Fenland district was criticised over the ‘stupid’ photos that included an officer wearing a Frankenstein’s monster mask behind bars and sitting at a desk.
Mrs Cox, whose £9,000 caravan was later found dumped in a field after she launched a social media campaign to find it, said yesterday: ‘The police are scared of travellers. And it wasn’t important to them – it’s just a caravan to them. I feel let down.’
The white Hobby Excellent caravan, which contained memorabilia from trips over the past three years, went missing last Thursday from a farm near Mrs Cox’s home in Ely, Cambridgeshire. She said that after posting
‘Shame on them’
a picture of it on Facebook, two people messaged her to say they had seen it heading to a nearby travellers’ site that day.
She contacted Cambridgeshire Police, but had to call twice more before someone phoned her back to say officers would ‘do a rideby’.
Meanwhile, her mother arranged for a microlight aircraft to fly over the site and captured an image of what Mrs Cox believed was her caravan.
She said: ‘I then had a call from the police saying they had been there for five hours and the travellers wouldn’t let them into the site. They also said they had flown a drone over but couldn’t see anything and there was nothing more they could do.’
Mrs Cox, 44, a motherofthree, forwarded photos taken from the microlight to prove her caravan was there and contacted the force again.
She said: ‘I suggested they might like to get a van of officers together, at which point the young girl sniggered and said, “And where do you think we’ll get a van full of officers from?”
‘I was livid. I said, “If you can’t get on the site, who the hell can?” I suggested I should go myself, at which point she said, “I don’t recommend that”.’
The following day the force was contacted by a farmer living near the travellers’ camp who said the caravan had been dumped on his land.
Mrs Cox said that when she went to retrieve the caravan with a police community support officer, she was surrounded by a dozen travellers. ‘We had to sit in a car for 20 minutes. It was quite frightening,’ the former secre tary added. The caravan needs repairs because a heating pipe was cut and the stereo stolen.
Dozens of people criticised the force on social media, including Nazer Ali, who said: ‘Shame on police. Police are always against decent, hardworking people but are scared of troublemakers.’
Cambridgeshire Police said: ‘Due to officer safety, it was not safe or legal to enter the site. There was insufficient information for officers to obtain a warrant to access the site.’